Sunrise
by Zaran
Summary: My cute lil AU fic. Chapter 7 is up and 8 is in the now in the works. I've received so many reviews for this one even during my 2year hiatus that I've finally decided to make myself work on it again. It was something I meant to finish anyway... one day.
1. Prologue

A/N: This sucks. First and foremost, this sucks. I'll admit that, but the thing is, I started this story at least 3 years ago, back in high school. I've never had motivation enough to finish more than a chapter or a few paragraphs at a time, but I'd really like to see it completed one day. It's a great story concept at best, to me at least.

Also, this is completely AU, meaning it follows the MMX series about as patriotically as you could expect a worm to follow a five mile length of string in a hot desert. Well, maybe it's not that far from the original series. Still, there are variations I added. Events aren't as they were in the game, characters aren't exactly in their right time frame, you get it.

Just, if you review (please?), nothing too harsh. I do bite and I have rabies to show for it. And I have fangs too. Grrrar!

EDIT: I just realized the first chapter somehow replaced the prologue. Sorry if I confused anyone.

**Sunrise**  
Prologue: Scars of Time Were Also Once Wounds  
  
Just another beautiful evening in the way of things, as it had often been many a time since the dawn of the planet. The winds came, flowing lazily from the southwestern sky between the two tall, jagged cliffs' sides. The heavens were cloudless on that day, allowing for one to gaze upward and on, unhindered, into eternity in any sky bound direction. On earth, ageless landscapes had watched the same scene forever even as it changed very little over the days. When they were bored of it, they could turn ancient eyes to another, more recent interest.

The ruins of a once proud factory, now just a skeleton of what it had been at one time, clung weakly to a single bridge that still hung by a thread between a small canyon not far from the sea. The fragile wooden structure was worn, bleached from overexposure to the sun, dry, cracked and splintering away with each breeze that passed. It had long ago been quite useful as a passage to a cave on a remote portion of the island, but now it's weakened condition promised a certain death on the rocky surface far below to any who would dare to tempt it.  
  
Though the place seemed peaceful enough from the look of it, none on the outside could ever suspected what horrors had been committed within. Now, new creatures had returned to the island with a different purpose. They had come peacefully enough, yet they would leave with the same horrible violence hidden from that tiny land only a few decades before.

--------------------

One... two... three shots fired, all easily dodged. A fourth and a fifth, both hesitated as the owner bothered to power them up a bit before sending them out for an assault. The first was parried without much trouble; the second just barely grazed the reploid's armor, leaving a small black burn mark in its wake.  
  
The reploid cursed mentally. He hadn't been expecting such a primitive-looking machine to be able to land a hit on him.  
  
The black robot he had found only moments before was quite obviously several decades old judging from its rust-spotted armor, how slow it moved, and also by the severe lack of damage its buster shots were causing. It had come out of its pod after he had accidentally caused a jolt to the inactive body, shocking it back to life and into a blind rage. The thing fought like a demon, screaming in an unearthly language as it fired blindly at its opponent, but had it any true threat the reploid might actually have had a challenge on his hands. It was quite an interesting model. Even with it's lack of power, to actually have hit him was truly something. Not to mention its age alone could make it a worth-while find, if he could get it back to base in one piece.  
  
He would have considered knocking it unconscious and taking it back with him had there not been the one concern: on the forehead of this machine there was an ocean blue crystal which radiated a strange purple aura. He had never seen anything like it before in his life, but every once in a short while, this aura would send a small bit of itself out towards him. Only two had made contact so far, but with each touch, he felt... different. He didn't know what that meant, only that he didn't like it.  
  
On the third touch, his reaction decided for him that then and there, he was going to take the robot out. He kept a wary eye on the aura about the crystal, patterning it carefully. When it had cast off its last and faded completely, a strange thing happened. The bioroid faltered, stumbling to all fours in a moment of shock. It stayed there, shaking its head before unsteadily forcing itself upright again.  
  
The reploid took this opportunity and charged the smaller being. As it heard the oncoming assault, the bioroid looked up, but it was already too late. There was a brief moment between the two during which time seemed to slow down to a crawl. The expression on the robot's face was one of pure horror, one not unlike the look of an innocent faced with certain death. It was then that the reploid realized the robot hadn't been fighting him by its own will, yet his fist had already connected. The other didn't even have time to react. It was lifted violently off the ground and thrown backwards... right over the cliff's edge. The reploid stared at this in slight shock - he hadn't even realized they'd come so close to the ocean. He rushed to the edge, hearing the terrible screams of the other as it crashed down the rocky edge on a one-way trip to the wild waves below.  
  
He stood there for long moments after he witnessed the robot plummet through the white, frothy sea, hoping against hope that it would surface. If it had lived, there might be a chance to call back to base for help as it was too dangerous for him to go down himself lest he tempt his own fate.  
  
After a full ten minutes, it became obvious that the robot had not survived. A heavy sigh escaped the reploid as he turned, regret hanging loosely in his mind as he returned to his mission. What he saw next startled him.  
  
Standing no more than ten feet from him was the image of the black bioroid he'd just sent to death... but it was no more than an image. It was purple, somewhat transparent, and flickered routinely, as though it were a hologram. Over all, it looked like a ghost, and the reploid glared at it and set himself for another battle - it also looked just like the strange aura covering the robot's crystal.  
  
The image stood there silently, hovering a few inches off the ground. It said nothing; it didn't move. The reploid didn't quite know what to make of it, even began to let off his guard somewhat until it suddenly charged him. The reploid dashed out of the way as quickly as he could, but even then he couldn't escape a light scrape of the thing. Before he could leap out of the way again, the purple transparency made a second lunge for him quicker than he could react, this time slamming into the reploid full force.  
  
The reploid reflexively prepared himself for the impact, but it never came. Instead, he was suddenly overcome by a feeling not unlike what he had experienced when smaller pieces of the aura had attacked him before, but this was much more intense, so much so that it overwhelmed him completely. He cried out frantically for a moment, then the feeling slowly left his body, leaving him on his knees several feet from the edge in a deep confusion.  
  
It had been frightening. He had never felt anything like that before, but he knew as soon as the syndrome released him that he had briefly gone insane. Was that what had made the bioroid attack him so wildly before? Most certainly so. There was no other explanation for coming at him like it had nothing to lose, then suddenly seeming as though it had never fought before in its life.  
  
He sat still for a while, concentrating on his physical being and waiting to see if anything else would happen. Strangely enough, he could only detect a slightly higher than normal body temperature, and a minute or so later, that was gone too. There was no more burning, there was no more pain - the sensations were gone completely. Yet he waited longer still. Only when he felt assured nothing more would happen to him, he stood and continued his mission, making a mental note to himself to get a systems check as soon as he returned to base. As for the robot, he decided he would simply say nothing about it. By the time he could get a search party out, the poor thing would already be crushed beyond recognition deep in its watery grave. 


	2. Chapter 1

A/N: I'm still trying to figure out how this site works, so bear with me. Hopefully I'll get this down soon.

**Sunrise**  
Chapter 1: A Twist of Fates  
  
_Five months later..._  
  
Gazing out over the west, one could see for miles over the suburban horizon with a beautiful view of large, fluffy, bone white clouds against the cerulean sky. The sight was nearly flawless, save the radio tower in the southwest, which didn't really ruin the entire scene if you just ignored it. However, if one looked out to the east, there was the vast expansion of the Maverick Hunter Headquarters, complete with an 8-acre training field, registration and command centers, three battle simulation labs, a cafeteria, three med labs, various recreational stations here and there, and to top it all off, an enormous bunker in the dead center of it all. (And as if that weren't enough, there were twelve more stationed in other countries around the world.) Then, if one had been looking out over the southeast wing, there was the city just beyond. All in all, the landscape was nearly erased by technology in the east.  
  
Zero hated the view of the east in broad daylight. He much preferred the nightlights of the city and HQ at night and the sky scapes during the day. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to admire either, for out in the distance to the west, several small dots were fast approaching his position. Staring out at them gravely, Zero lifted a pair of binoculars to his eyes. From his vantage point high up on one of HQ's eastern look out posts, he could vaguely make out about seventeen rather _large_ Mavericks marching through the streets. They weren't the normal scouts sent out to keep the Hunters on their toes - these were Destroyers, huge mavericks with mind-blowing firepower and nearly impenetrable armor. Every few minutes, one of the Mavs would fire something off into a nearby building, either sending it sky high, or into a ball of flames.  
  
Luckily, that area had been evacuated some time ago, so civilian casualties would be none. It was only property damage that the humans would have to worry about this time. This only gave Zero more reason to feel as at ease as he did - he was by no means nervous. He'd seen the likes of the Destroyers before, knew exactly how to deal with them, and knew well that no normal weapon they carried had the kick to destroy the mini-malls and such that they did that easily. These buildings had been made to withstand a certain level of damage. It seemed that the Mavs had been given a little extra punch, but it was nothing new to the crimson reploid.  
  
_Overdrive lasers_, he wondered to himself.  
  
Dropping the binoculars to hang from their strap around his neck, Zero flung himself over the ladder at the side of the look out post and quickly climbed back down to the ground where another reploid stood patiently awaiting him.  
  
Megaman X had joined the Hunters about a year before Zero had. Although X had been with the Hunters for a considerably longer amount of time, he hadn't been as inclined to fight from the get go as the blonde wonder had been, which set him back somewhat in his skills and rank. Still, it hadn't kept the two from becoming friends immediately.  
  
Zero acknowledged the azure reploid with a nod, then hurried through a door beside them leading back into the compound, explaining his findings as they went.  
  
"They're Destroyers," he stated before X could even ask, "Destroyers with new toys. They're down there taking out houses with one hit. And there's about twenty at the most, not any real threat."  
  
Behind him, X's eyes widened, his jaw hung slightly open. "It's getting worse," he groaned. "They weren't ever this serious before."  
  
The commander simply shrugged. "Don't get nervous now," he said in assurance to his smaller friend. "I don't need you passing out on me out when we get started." He smirked, earning him a nasty glare. It wasn't X's fault that he'd been knocked unconscious during his very first battle and everyone knew it, but Zero would be the last to let him live it down. "Anyway, it may not be anything serious, but we'd better get down to the briefing room and tell them what we saw."  
  
--------------------  
  
No more than ten minutes later, Zero found he had been right about the weapons they were carrying. Almost every one of the Mavs held at least one overdrive laser, something he had run up against several times before.  
  
Zero leapt high to avoid a shot from the deadly beams, then kicked the air at the peak of his jump for a second mid-air leap to dodge a second blazing beam. A third came at his head and he merely ducked it as he was falling to escape the blast. He retaliated with a few slashes from his beam saber as soon as he hit the ground, running a little to the side to get out of the way of yet another laser beam.  
  
Landing from a double back flip and avoiding yet another attack, Zero sighed, and frowned. The last two Destroyers leapt towards him, one landing on either side to surround the Hunter. The ground trembled almost violently as they landed - one might have thought it was a small earthquake. Both hulking Mavs circled Zero for a moment, each sizing up the smaller reploid who simply stood there, staring out into nothingness as if accepting his defeat.  
  
At first, that was all they did, and Zero couldn't help but wonder if it had been his agility or speed out there that had amused or intimidated them so. Ah, Destroyers. They were so hard to read. _But_, he thought, charging the plasma in his blade. Immediately, the Mavericks crouched for battle - it looked like their enemy was ready to fight again. _They're still so easy to take out once you know how to get them._  
  
Giving it no more than a brief side-glance, Zero found the spot he was looking for and swung the beam saber wide, creating a crescent-shaped projectile of the blade that sailed forward, crashing into the stomach of one Maverick and splitting it in half completely. A second swipe ensured the hasty death of the second, and the battle suddenly came to an end.  
  
A few blocks away, he could hear the sounds of the other battle where X was still fighting the remaining Mavericks. When it had been decided that only he and X would take the mission, Zero silently volunteered to make the smaller Hunter's safety a priority, whether his superiors expected him to or not. There was no doubt in his mind that X's skills had improved, but if he kept making the little mistakes he did, he was going to get himself seriously hurt or worse. No one needed to ask X if he minded the idea of his best friend protecting him during the fight; of course he would have been opposed to it. So, Zero kept it a secret to himself and kept as close to the other during their brawl as possible without bringing too much attention to himself.  
  
Sighing, Zero turned and broke into a trot down the street, following the noise to where X would surely be.  
  
--------------------  
  
"YAAA!!!" X screamed wildly, firing off a powerful blast at the very last of the Destroyers. The shot connected perfectly, and X had to bring his arm up to cover his face as shrapnel flew in every direction from the explosion that followed. Panting heavily, he straightened himself up and brushed off some of the dust that had collected on his armor at some point or another during the brawl. As he did, he turned his head, looking around at the damage the Mavericks had caused. There were a few buildings that had been completely destroyed, but none of them had been very large. Almost every standing structure had suffered at least a chunk blown out of a wall. Other than that, there didn't seem to be much that couldn't be repaired without a great deal of trouble. Relief flooded him and he allowed it to take reign over his mind, temporarily keeping him unaware of how shaky his body had become after the heat of battle had died down.  
  
"It's okay," he told himself over and over again, one hand at his forehead, the fingers there gently working soothing little circles against his sweat-drenched skin as far as his helmet would allow. "You're not dead; you had control of everything. You're fine." But despite his efforts, another voice at the back of his mind still chided him, _No you didn't. You lived by sheer luck, you and your panicky self._  
  
He tried to ignore it, adding pressure to his massaging, but in the end, the voice won him over once again. Who was he trying to fool? He was nervous, plain and simple, and losing his grip was doing him no good. If it weren't for that, he would have been made a commander by his fourth real battle just as Zero had. Granted, he had only _assisted_ in three attacks and this raid made his second in live-action combat, but...  
  
Stop it, he commanded himself mentally, shaking his head with a small smile. _You're just inexperienced. It'll get better._ Then he remembered something else, and his smile faded as he heard footsteps approach from behind.  
  
"Freak out again?" came a teasing voice from behind him, but X didn't even flinch.  
  
"I just got... shaky is all," he shot back, unable to hide a renewed grin. He turned to face Zero, hands on his hips. "But you've got nothing to brag about. I finished my part all on my own this time. Nah!" He stuck out his tongue for emphasis.  
  
For a moment, the blonde was tempted to walk over and slap the underside of X's jaw, forcing him to bite his own tongue. He settled for a shrug instead. "Whatever. Looks like we're done here for now. Le-"  
  
Across the street in an old, out-of-business clothing store, a window suddenly burst out of its frame, shattered glass fragmenting even further on the sidewalk and startling both Hunters. Zero reflexively unsheathed and activated his saber, but X was a little slower to react. Both had their eyes trained on the store window, watching and waiting for anything to happen. Inside, something was moving around, stumbling over itself as it came toward them. It was small and couldn't have been more than a few inches shorter than X. Neither Hunter could quite make out what it was, as it was shrouded in shadows, but they did know that it wasn't human.  
  
"Who's there?!" Zero demanded forcefully, venturing a few steps forward as he tried to get a better view of what they were now facing.  
  
The figure tilted its head slightly and jerked, swaying as though standing on its own two feet was a challenge it couldn't quite seem to overcome. It made an attempt to walk forward and only succeeded in stumbling over something in its way, then fell forward, landing half in and half out of the broken window frame. In the light, it became much easier to see that it was a reploid (or at least it looked like one), and it was in bad need of repair.  
  
Concerned for the reploid, X took a few cautious steps toward it, Zero right on his heels. While the crimson Hunter took a short glance around the store for more enemies, X gently prodded the still form with his foot. When the reploid didn't so much as twitch, he sighed, assured that he was either unconscious or dead, and knelt down for a closer look.  
  
The reploid was sticky to the touch, and small, green specks of seaweed led X to the conclusion that it probably had taken a swim in the nearby ocean and hadn't bothered to wash itself off. It had black armor, highlighted with a bright orange color. Two large fin-like protrusions jutted out from the dead center of the helmet below a blue star-shaped crystal, fanning to the back. Under the visible, softly closed eye, a purple blaze shot out from the corner, contrasting sharply with the lightly tanned synthetic skin and faded into the soft flesh under the chin. It was clearly male by the shape of the body, but what was interesting about him and even puzzling was the presence of several small spots and huge splotches on the armor which had actually begun to rust and deteriorate, creating little pits and holes here and there.  
  
Baffled, X called to his partner, motioning for him to look at the corroded splotches. Zero's face twisted in something that could have been mild disturbance - neither had ever known a reploid to rust. In fact, it was deemed impossible with the alloy that made their armor and other parts. Clearly, this reploid was an older model... much older.  
  
Without a word, Zero hefted the small body up over his shoulder. He gave a short, meaningful jerk of his head and X nodded his understanding. In the next instant, the two were engulfed in red and blue lights, respectively. As the lights disappeared, so did the Hunters and their captive with them.  
  
--------------------  
  
Enraged, Ketsu shot up out of his chair, pounding a fist on either side of the computer screen in front of him. "Damnit!" he swore loudly and glared maliciously at the screen. He knew he was going to lose. He always did. It was inevitable. Ketsu and solitaire just didn't mix. But he had given it another shot anyway.  
  
The medical reploid swore one last time before closing the program out entirely and slumping defeatedly back in his chair. For one brief moment, he entertained thoughts of deleting the game from the computer's hard drive permanently, but decided grudgingly against it. Delta would absolutely have a fit if his second favorite pasttime were destroyed.  
  
Without warning, a dull beeping popped out of his internal communicator. With a groan, he activated it, speaking into it gruffly. "Yeah? What have we got? Did he get hurt too badly?"  
  
"Wow, you sound peeved," replied the deceitfully young voice of Delta. "No, Commander Zero and X haven't been hurt at all, if it makes you feel any better. But they've brought someone back with them, and Dr. Cain wants you to have a look at him. He's still in that meeting, and he can't exactly fly all the way over here from Germany right now."  
  
The purple and yellow-orange striped reploid yawned loudly, mostly for effect. "He's not one of our own? I thought that was up to the RRA to deal with non-Maverick Hunter reploids."  
  
There was a short pause and a sound of shuffling. "Yes I know... but Ketsu... he's... rusting."  
  
Ketsu nearly choked, jerking wildly in his seat. "WHAT?! I'll be down there in a sec!"  
  
--------------------  
  
Too anxious to hold still, X shifted his weight to his left foot, emerald eyes switching from the base's head doctor to the black and orange reploid lying on the examining table, then back to his right again. Zero, on the other hand, had taken to silence, staring blankly at the robot alone. When X stole a curious glance at him, it seemed that there was something on the blonde reploid's mind, but he decided on a better time to ask about it.  
  
On the table, the new machine lay, eyes softly closed, not emitting so much as a sigh as he slept, if he were asleep at all. For all any present could tell, he at least looked very well dead. A large, removable panel of armor had been taken off his chest, and Ketsu had taken to that first thing, placing a few wired patches here and there to monitor the half-dead creature. He spent a good amount of time poking around inside carefully, frequently glancing back to the computer monitoring his patient's status and "Hmm"ing to himself every once in a while. _What the hell happened to you?_ he questioned it mentally, making an attempt to sort through the rather large blobs of wire and seaweed that had somehow found their way inside the dark-armored machine's body.  
  
When X could stand the silence no longer, he took a small step forward and quietly asked, "What do you make of it?"  
  
"Hmm?" the reploid medic replied, not taking his eyes off the machine under his gaze. "What do I make of it?"  
  
X nodded quickly. "Can you help him?"  
  
Ketsu took another minute to examine a mass of particularly frayed wires. "To be honest, I don't think he has a lot of luck with him," he began gravely. "His insides are completely waterlogged, half the panels I've seen in him so far aren't responding, and to make things more interesting, he's slipping in and out of consciousness and I can't control it. How he made it this far inland on his own, I'll never know. On top of that, some of these plant forms I'm seeing inside him are from at least a mile out in the ocean, which makes it absolutely incredible that he even made it to land period. At those depths, he shouldn't have survived whatever dive he went on at all. Add to that the fact that from what I can tell, he's not of any maker I'm familiar with and you're pretty much dealing him the death sentence, assuming he can even hear us."  
  
Reaching behind himself to a small tray, Ketsu took a small pair of tweezers and began pulling strand after strand of seaweed out of the still body. He froze after a moment, then removed what looked like the remains of a baby crab that had been badly crushed. Staring at the crustacean in mild horror, he dropped it in a nearby trash container. Even Zero winced at that - just the thought of something alive crawling around inside his systems made him shudder.  
  
Finally, the medic threw away the last of the plants that he could find and stood back from the machine, giving it one last look over. "This isn't even a reploid," he concluded matter-of-factly, "he's practically an antique. I'd even go so far as to assume he's older than you, X." He cast a glance in the blue Hunter's direction. X's shock was well-enough apparent from his hanging jaw and wide eyes. After a moment, it became obvious that he either would or could say nothing about it, so the purple reploid continued on. "The way he is now, I can't do anything for him. His design is so out-of-date I don't know how to repair the damage that's been done without risking further harm." Two green, glistening orbs widened sadly, as Ketsu had predicted, and he quickly continued before X could protest. "However, I can probably have another body built for him, and if the data in his memory hasn't been too badly damaged, I can just transfer the files over to a new core."  
  
The little blue reploid nodded immediately, excitement plain as daylight on his face although he tried in vain to keep himself calm and collected. Ketsu couldn't help but break into a wide grin as X's already high-pitched voice took on an even higher tone. "That's great! When should we expect to see him wake?"  
  
"Give it a good week to get the body built. In that time, I should also have copied his data to a compatible neural net. Come see me then."  
  
Near about to burst, X gave his friend a short bow of gratitude and turned to Zero, grinning ear to ear. However, the crimson Hunter stood oblivious to the smaller reploid, a severe gaze trained on the robot lying peacefully on the table. Just the look on Zero's face was enough to extinguish a good part of X's joy for the moment; his smile faded and he regarded his friend with a questioning look. "Zero? Something wrong?"  
  
The red reploid shook his head slowly, turning to leave. "Nothing..." Without another word, he was gone down the halls, off to wherever he would go. Puzzled, X turned back to Ketsu; the medic simply shrugged, scratching at the back of his head. Long ago, he had learned no one could figure out Zero when he got into his moods. Now would surely be no different than before, and both knew it was best to simply let him be. He would talk later, if he even wanted to at all.


	3. Chapter 2

A/N: Chapter 2's here, and I'm finally getting to know this place better. Good news for ya! Might've said this before, but watch out for bad grammar and a few typos. I did my best to clean this up before I sent it in, but I'm not perfect. Also, I still hate the way my writing sounds, so if you hate it, don't get upset. You're not alone, I assure you.

**Sunrise**  
Chapter 2: The New Hunter  
  
Late that night, X pulled himself out of bed. Apparently he had suffered too much excitement  
that day, and now he was paying for it with insomnia. Having nothing better to do, he  
wrapped his bath robe around him and slipped his feet into thick, comfortable socks. Cold  
metal floors could do horrors to anyone, and he was going no short distance. Assuming  
he made it past the night shift, the trip he intended to take was a long one, but at night  
there were watchmen randomly patrolling almost every hall. Still, sneaking out past curfew  
was nothing new to him, and he knew well how to get to most any point on the compound  
without being caught.  
  
Typing in his room's code, he slid the door open just wide enough to peek out into the darkness and made a cautious scan of the hall, making sure there was no one there to see him  
before creeping out and padding quietly down the hallway. At the end of the corridor, he  
pressed his back firmly against the corner, listening intently for the sound of footsteps.  
When he heard none, he carefully risked a glance around the way. Thankfully, no one was  
there, so X ducked down and strode over to the double doors on the far wall.  
  
There, he held his hand to the icy metal of one door, warming it a little before he pressed  
an unprotected ear to it and once again listened. Satisfying silence came to him again, and  
he snuck into the stairwell and started upwards toward the fifth floor.  
  
It was easy enough to find Zero's room even if X had not known what the number was - his was  
the only one in the entire hall with his infamous "Z" emblem in the center. He had done it  
as a joke one day after watching a Zorro movie with the intent of taking it down some time  
later, but apparently he either never got around to it or decided to leave it be. In no  
time, X was staring right at that unmistakable trademark, his knuckles rapping lightly at  
the door. He waited patiently for a minute or so, but when the blonde reploid didn't respond  
to his calls, he knocked again, harder the second time.  
  
That got Zero's attention. He groaned loudly enough to be heard even outside in the hall,  
exaggerating his irritation. A minute later the door opened, revealing a very groggy Hunter  
in next to nothing. X blinked, green eyes now quite wide and cheeks flushed an interesting  
shade of red, shocked to silence.  
  
Zero blinked a few times, trying to rid the last of sleep from his eyes as he nearly glared  
at the smaller reploid impatiently. It wasn't like this was the first time X had come to his  
room at all hours, waking him from his slumber, and if he could expect the same as previous  
nights, they wouldn't be getting any sleep until the next night. "Well," he sighed, running  
a hand back over his hair to try to smooth down some of his wild locks. "What is it you're  
wanting this time?"  
  
"Z-zero?" X gulped. He realized with embarrassment that he had been staring and quickly  
looked away. "Y-you're... um... you're..."  
  
Cocking his head to one side, he followed X's recent line of sight and blinked, then  
narrowed his eyes back at the blushing Hunter. "X... It's called underwear."  
  
"Yeah, I know that! But I've never seen you in your underwear before!"  
  
Zero sighed loudly, tossing his hands halfway up in the air more for the impression than  
anything. "You've seen me in my boxers before," he groaned, grabbing X by the arm, dragging  
him into the room before someone caught them, shutting the door behind them, and flipping on  
a dim set of lights almost all at once. "What's the difference? A little more skin,  
whoop-de-frickin-doo. Now, what makes you drag me out of my bed this late at night  
_again_? Huh?"  
  
X fidgeted nervously, twisting his hands one in the other for a moment, finding great  
interest in the gray carpeting that was the floor. "I... uh... I couldn't sleep..."  
  
"Manalive, X, is that the only excuse you can come up with?" With a loud yawn, Zero rolled  
his computer chair over and motioned for X to sit, then plopped back down on his bed before  
the sheets had a chance to cool off. "So why are you really here? You know we're gonna get  
hell if they find out we've been holding all-nighters like this without permission."  
  
Nodding his thanks, X took the seat he was offered. "I know. You only tell me every time I  
come over." He had been smiling before, that same playful, childlike smile he never seemed  
to lose, but it faded, giving way to a more serious, concerned expression. "Zero, what was  
wrong today, when we brought that robot back with us? You... I've never seen you that way  
before and it just... worried me."  
  
"... Ah, that." Zero allowed himself to stretch out on his back over his covers, sighing  
deeply as he relaxed. "It was nothing, really. It's just that I saw him and for some reason  
he struck me as familiar, like I'd seen him somewhere before, but I can't remember him. It  
just bugged the hell out of me for a while, that's all." He turned his head slightly,  
shooting his friend a half smile, but X's expression remained.  
  
"Maybe... you've seen him in a dream?" X ventured to ask, tilting his gaze up to meet the  
other's.  
  
Zero diverted his eyes for a moment, pretending to think on it. "No, don't think so."  
  
"Oh, Zero, come on. You know what dreams I'm talking about."  
  
"Yeah, I know," the blonde sighed, a little more harshly than he meant, "but I don't want to  
talk about it."  
  
An uncomfortable silence settled between the two, and X pressed himself back against the  
chair a bit more firmly, lowering his gaze, hurt. "I'm sorry," he whispered, guilt reforming  
his features. "I didn't mean to..."  
  
Zero stared blankly at the ceiling, cursing himself for being so forceful with the  
especially emotional reploid. Strange, it was, that he should put up with this Hunter when,  
with anyone else, he would simply have told them to tough it out and walked away without  
even a second thought about it. There were times when even X got too mushy on him and he had  
to ask himself why he bothered to deal with it instead of just pushing him out the door and  
on his way. There was something about him that tugged at strings no one else could reach.  
Why, he would probably never know, but he endured it anyway. "No, I'm sorry," he apologized  
softly. "I didn't mean that to sound like it did. You know I don't like talking about that  
though."  
  
"Yeah, I know... I'm sorry for saying anything." X ventured to glance back up to his best  
friend, but found him instead gazing intently at the ceiling, avoiding him. "I guess I  
should go back now, huh?"  
  
Rubbing one eye, Zero half glanced over at the smaller reploid. "That might be a good idea,  
considering what tomorrow's scheduled to hold."  
  
With a shy smile, X nodded. "I know."  
  
Somewhat hesitantly, Zero dragged himself away from the comfort of a warm bed to see his  
friend out the door. Once goodnights were said and done, he plopped back down in bed face  
first and was out before he could even pull the sheets over his nearly naked body.  
  
--------------------  
  
_Nope. Not gonna do it. Not this time. Not gonna... Oops, losing control... Okay, got it  
back. Not gonna do it..._  
  
Ketsu fought it. There was no way he was going to give in to it this time. But slowly, his  
will began to slip, and ultimately, broke. Pushing his chair away from the computer screen  
slightly, he stretched as far as he physically could and yawned.  
  
"Damnit, you wuss," the medic cursed himself, then looked over the data onscreen one last  
time.  
  
For the last week, he had completely immersed himself in his latest project: the "Forte  
Project," as he had jokingly named it. Every minute he could spare, from the waking hours  
until he turned in for the day, he spent in the tech center, toiling over the memory core  
and any other part that yielded him access to any kind of data the new robot had to offer.  
Had it not interested him as much as it did, he wouldn't have lost any sleep from it, but  
his findings, especially of late, kept him coming back to the computer screen as often as he  
could.  
  
The robot was indeed older than X, and by several decades at that. A slightly deeper search  
into his memory files revealed that he was also familiar with a Dr. Thomas Light and a Dr.  
Albert Wily, two of the greatest robot designers in the history of mankind - truly an  
amazing discovery. How the machine had survived to this age, however, was a complete  
mystery. There were rumors and records of others like him from that period, yet for all  
anyone could tell, they had either been destroyed or had fallen to the wears and tears of  
time. And this one had survived...  
  
Where X was concerned, strangely enough, the bioroid didn't seem to have even the slightest  
hint of the azure Hunter's existence, as X was terribly disappointed to learn.  
Ketsu also found out other neat little things about him: he was called Forte, he had a  
counterpart named Gospel, and as well as being built primarily for battle, he had an intense  
rivalry with someone. Most files showed only brief portions of battles and names.  
Unfortunately, just as who and what Gospel was and who this rival was exactly were also  
another item left up to the imagination to identify. Most of Forte's data had been either  
corrupted beyond recognition or erased completely. What was left was barely enough to even  
identify the robot, let alone yield anything about the span of time during which he lived so  
long ago. But, among other things, Forte had faced a terrible "end," as Ketsu discovered  
nearing the end of the week.  
  
One day, while searching through the more recent files, he came across a memory clip that  
showed fragmented scenes of a particularly gruesome brawl. The file was so severely damaged  
that all audio data had been wiped and of the entire three minutes it lasted (the longest  
readable memory file discovered by far), only about twenty seconds of it gave anything worth  
seeing at all. The remainder had been degraded to static or fuzzy images, all but destroyed.  
What did play correctly revealed a dark room, something like a warehouse, and a number of  
inactive or badly mangled machines.  
  
One, a red and either black or gray one, closely resembled Forte himself. With nothing  
better to go on, Ketsu could only assume they had the same creator, or at least similar  
designs. That robot also seemed to have met a horrifying end - it was missing alarmingly  
large portions of its body, including its head and all but one of its limbs, that seemed to  
have been severed with a burning knife or blade of some sort. Horrible as it was to think  
about, the robot appeared to have been tortured to death - nothing from that time period  
could have moved fast enough to remove such large portions of such a body very quickly.  
The last second of the file that showed anything contained a large green light and a red  
mass that could have possibly been a third bioroid and its weapon. The remaining minute of  
the file was too badly corrupted to view. When X had seen it, too curious and determined to  
heed the reploid medic's warnings, the images haunted him for hours afterward, and he sat  
alone in his room deep in thought for the rest of that day.  
  
Luckily, there was one part of Forte's data core that was almost completely saved: his  
personality data. It seemed that time had spared the shell of armor that encased his  
personality chip to some extent. It had taken Ketsu the better part of a day to retrieve it,  
but over 60 percent had been copied without trouble. It was also the only part of Forte's data that he had been able to save over 20 percent of, all of which he deemed an incredible accomplishment given the bioroid's condition.  
  
Another yawn, and Ketsu watched the download bar reach its stretch to the end. It had almost  
completed when a warning suddenly popped up on the screen. Puzzled, Ketsu read it and his  
jaw fell open in shock at what it said. The next few minutes he spent filling the air with  
the sweet sound of his creative vocabulary before slamming his fist down on the arm of his  
computer chair.  
  
"Well, son of a... I don't believe this," he groaned, rubbing at his temples and staring at  
the screen angrily. He took a moment to settle himself down, then began typing away at the  
keyboard again. An instant later, a program opened itself for him, and he typed in a few  
more commands before finally coming to the data screen he was looking for. He read its  
contents and sighed - the transfer had not completed, nor could it ever.  
  
Groaning loudly, he closed out the program and disconnected the wires that ran from one end  
of the computer to the reploid lying restrained on the table. _Well_, he thought  
dejectedly, _at least he looks like he did_. And it was true. The new body he had was  
almost an exact replica of his bioroid form, but he had been given added features. He had  
the same white-silver hair, same purple blazes under the eyes, same blood red irises, same  
color and pattern to the armor. It was all there, but with a more powerful blaster, a few  
inches added in height just for fashion, and a humanoid body rested beneath all that armor,  
fused together until they were separated by the reploid's command just like most any other  
reploid. The only thing Ketsu felt any regret about was the unusable data and his decision  
to omit a few files, such as the "final battle."  
  
The idea popped into his head once, but he shot it down in an instant. He didn't need this  
reploid to remember something like that yet. They would just have to wait and see how he  
took to his new life before they revealed to him such horrible images of his past.  
Stretching again, Ketsu shut down his workstation and headed up to his bunk. _So close,  
yet so far... Damnit..._  
  
--------------------  
  
Morning came all to quickly for some and not fast enough for others that next day. It was a  
Saturday, a day of rest for most of the Hunters in the compound, but for some, it was just  
the beginning of the working hours. For a certain azure-armored reploid, dawn hadn't come  
fast enough. He sat in his room, playing games of chess with himself, reading through books  
and magazines, assaulting Zero's email account with pointless letters ranging in content  
from the exact time of day down to the very nanosecond to how many petals he'd counted on a  
clipart flower, or just plain lying in bed for nearly five hours before the long-awaited  
announcement finally came.  
  
"X, I know you're awake," Ketsu's wearied voice came over the intercom. X nearly jumped out  
of his boxers, but instead of finding himself nude, he ended up on his floor, sitting in an  
unnatural position horizontally in his computer chair.  
  
"Yeah," he groaned, rubbing the back of his aching head. "You alright? You sound terrible."  
  
"Eh, that's what working late does to you," the doctor explained, feigning a peeved  
attitude. "I'll be fine. Anyway, you know why I called. It's the big day. I'll try to drag  
Zero out of bed too, but if I can't I'll need your help."  
  
"Is Dr. Cain already in the med lab?"  
  
"No, we've decided to keep him at a safe distance until we can be sure Forte is stable.  
Don't need the old man to be around if he goes off and starts blasting at stuff, do we?"  
  
"No, I guess not. Okay, I'll be there ASAP."  
  
There was a soft chuckle from the other end. "Yeah, I know you will. Now move your blue  
butt. You've had me at this all week and I don't want to be kept waiting."  
  
X couldn't help but grin at that - he was well aware of Ketsu's sense of humor, and hearing  
it come out in his friend that morning only served to push him out the door that much  
faster. Feeling more and more giddy and nervous by the minute, he laughed to himself on the  
way out, a wild idea suddenly popping up in his mind.  
  
Ohh, Zero was going to hate him for this...  
  
--------------------  
  
It was half past nine when X all but bounced through the door to the med lab followed by a  
miserable-looking Zero who rubbed constantly at his stomach. Shaking his head at the  
childish and pained reploids, respectively, Ketsu regarded X with an accusing stare. "What  
did you do to him?" he asked suspiciously.  
  
"Nothing," the blue Hunter replied and immediately fought himself to suppress a laugh.  
  
"He pounced on me," Zero growled, still holding his hurt belly, "that's what the little  
bastard did."  
  
Now hurt as well, in a different sense, X turned to his crimson friend, apology all over his  
face. "I said I was sorry, didn't I?" he cried as pitifully as he could. "I was just having  
a little fun with you. Yeesh."  
  
Rolling his eyes, Zero took a deep breath and released it slowly. "Listen," he began as  
gently as he could, "I know you meant it only in good humor, but this is no way for a  
soldier to behave, do you understand?"  
  
"Yeah," scoffed X, all the more wounded. He hated being a Hunter sometimes, especially when  
it restricted him from doing as he felt. There were times when he just could not contain  
himself, and it was true that, as a Hunter, he should have more self-control, but the  
getting used to having that self-control was more challenging than he had first thought when  
he signed on.  
  
Ketsu cleared his throat, more in making an attempt to lifting some of the tension that had  
suddenly fallen on the room than to bring their attention back to the reason they were all  
there that morning. "If you're ready," was all he said. When neither Hunter objected, he  
regarded X in particular and told him, "You do realize that he most likely remembers nothing  
from the past now, so it's not too probable that he will be able to answer any questions  
you have."  
  
Wordlessly, the azure Hunter nodded, and, satisfied, Ketsu turned to Forte and reached over  
to a point on the back of his neck. His fingers skillfully found the spot he was looking for  
in no time and pressed at a small area there. Before he had even withdrawn his hand fully,  
Forte's eyes fluttered open slowly, as though he was coming out of a nice, long nap.  
  
The new reploid took in his surroundings easily at first, but as soon as he realized he was  
in an unfamiliar place, his eyes shot wide open, more so when he noticed he was not alone  
and also tied down.  
  
"Don't panic," Ketsu said softly, offering a kind smile. "No harm will come to you. My name  
is Ketsu; this is Zero, one of our best commanders. The one standing with him is X, another  
of our best, but not yet a commander. You're in the med lab of Maverick Hunter  
Headquarters."  
  
This appeared to ease the black reploid - his eyelids lowered so that he didn't look as  
though he were about to pop them out of his head, and he rolled them all around, taking in  
everything with interest. "Why... am I here?" he questioned slowly, as if unsure of himself.  
"And why am I in these restraints?"  
  
"You might not remember," the medic explained, "but you were found not more than a week ago  
by those two there. You were badly damaged and in dire need of repair, so they brought you  
here and I fixed you up. Your original body was so out of date I couldn't work with it, so I  
had your memory files and all that I could salvage transferred to this body. I hope you're  
not too upset about that, but it's also why we have you strapped to that table. We weren't  
sure how you had adjusted to the change."  
  
Forte stared at him curiously for a moment, then turned his head over to X and Zero,  
blinking at them with just as much interest as they gave to him. "So... Why can't I remember  
anything?"  
  
X cocked his head to the side, aiming a puzzled gaze at the medical reploid. For his part,  
Ketsu shifted his weight from one foot to the other for a moment, unsure exactly how to  
explain that one. He had told no one about the problem that had come up the night before,  
but had instead opted for telling them all at once. "Most of your data was corrupted; our  
programs couldn't even recognize the files, let alone copy them. What was readable was  
damaged in part, so your memory would have been fuzzy had the body you have now been able to  
run what I had saved. Unfortunately, there was a complication and your memory  
self-destructed when I tried to transfer it over. Evidently the one who built you encoded  
only your memory with a security device that would prevent copying of any kind." He paused a  
moment, shrugging helplessly at both X's and Zero's stunned stares. "I must say that I'm  
quiet befuddled by it all. Even with the technology I have access to, I couldn't find the  
cause of it, but for some odd reason what I could get of your personality went through just  
fine, if it's any comfort to you."  
  
All at once, a loud beeping sound filled the room, assaulting the ears of those who had them  
and startling Forte so that he reflexively jerked, rattling the restraints that held him  
still. "What the hell is that?" he asked as he shifted his gaze between the three other  
reploids in the room. They'd obviously grown accustomed to the noise - not one of them  
jumped at the sound. Instead, Zero turned and ran from the room, his long ponytail waving  
behind him. X, being a little more polite, offered a short goodbye, saying that he was  
needed elsewhere before he left.  
  
Shaking his head slowly, Ketsu stepped over to Forte and pressed a button under the table he  
lay on. "It's another attack," he groaned.  
  
"Attack?" the black reploid asked, mildly alarmed as he sat up and pushed himself off his  
seat to the floor.  
  
"Yes. They've been coming like this for the last few weeks out of no where." The medic  
turned to another machine and began fiddling with a few wires there, his head slightly  
bowed. "No one knows where it all came from, but it began not long after our first general  
disappeared. Now, don't get upset over this and tell no one I said this to you, but there's  
rumor about a war being at hand." He paused, holding a hand to his temples. "I'm sorry I  
woke you up during such a time. Maybe I shouldn't have..."  
  
"No," Forte said firmly. In his surprise, Ketsu turned back to him, blinking at the  
determined expression he was met with. "It's alright. I know I can fight and take care of  
myself. Just tell me what I need to do. I'll help you."  
  
This only earned him more blinking and staring. "But, you've only just awakened," Ketsu  
protested gently. "You should at least let me give you a check up before you even leave the  
room to make sure you're running as you should. As for fighting, I'm sorry, but I can't  
recommend it right now. Standard procedures, you know."  
  
He had a point, Forte admitted to himself a little disappointedly. What if he were to go out  
and something didn't work right? Where would he be then? "Alright, you win," he sighed. "But  
after this I want to help out. I don't remember anything, but somehow I know I was meant to  
fight. Why else was I created with this?" As he said the last word, he lifted his right arm,  
calling his hand back inside the lower half to become a potentially deadly plasma cannon.  
With a smug half smile, he added, "Might as well make use of it."  
  
To this, the medic gave his own understanding smile, nodded, and gestured for Forte to sit  
in a chair beside the machine he'd been messing with. "That'll be fine, so long as you don't  
use it against us," he allowed. He was well aware of this new reploid's capabilities - he'd  
been through his systems enough to know by then just how he could work. From what he'd seen,  
Forte held a great potential. Even despite his memory loss, who or what he could become  
could very well rival even X or Zero if he chose to take himself above and beyond his  
limits. Although it was certainly something to reckon with, for the moment Ketsu was just  
glad that he was on their side.


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N**: I'd love to tell you otherwise, but the only reason I can post this chapter is because I'd already written it some months ago. I've got a midterm on Wednesday, essay due next week, the usual college crap. Chapter 4's the same, so I'll be posting it along with this one, but chappy 5's in limbo for the time being.

**Sunrise**  
Chapter 3: What May Come, Will Come  
  
X moaned to himself as he stiffly trudged down the halls of the registration center, his feet scraping the floor beneath him. The sounds that followed either grated heavily on his nerves or had no real effect on him at all, depending on what hit the metallic surface: either his armor or the padding that lined the bottom of his boots. He barely noticed, but what the noise did to him it did ten fold to the others who he happened to pass by. Some held their ears, some asked him to stop (and some of those did so in a none too friendly fashion), all gave him various stares. Yet, he was oblivious to any of it.  
  
It had been two days since Forte's awakening, but he thought of it more in terms of the number of attacks that had occurred since then, which was twice that. Some things were more beneficial the more of it you got; others tended to stick with the idea that the less you got of it, the better it was. This Maverick hit-and-run business was definitely among the little things that were welcome only in small amounts, as the most recent brawl had proven.  
  
They weren't visible, but beneath the azure Hunter's armor and jump suit was a rather large slit that had had to be stitched together running the length of his back and over a dozen bumps and bruises of various sizes, all courtesy of a particularly huge maverick with a horrid obsession with sabers that was just plain disturbing. Actually, the little sores didn't bother X that much; rather, it was the foot-and-a-half long cut that was causing him the most pain. Reploids generally healed at an amazing pace faster than humans did, but an injury as bad as X's wasn't uncommon to take at least a day to close up. That meant a day of standing and walking while stiff as a rod, lying on his back or his stomach while he slept, and worst of all, sitting straight, something he did next to never. At least Ketsu had given him a sedative for the pain, but it still had yet to kick in as his systems were preoccupied with his healing process.  
  
_And to think I believed I was a decent Hunter only a few days ago_, he thought gloomily. The fact that he had had to be saved by Zero yet again despite all his efforts only served to hack off more of his already pathetic ego. Of late, especially in the last five hours, he found himself constantly questioning his abilities as a Hunter and/or wondering just why most still had it in their minds that he was one of the best things mankind had ever seen since peanut butter was invented. He allowed a soft chuckle at a thought that suddenly crossed his mind, but it was interrupted by a wild commotion just ahead of him. X blinked, totally taken off-guard by the energetic little thing that rushed up to him.  
  
He was short, and it stood out like a sore thumb, first off. Whereas most others like him were taller than the average human by at least a foot, he seemed to have been created with the rules in reverse. And he looked young, almost too young. In his human attire, X guessed, he could have easily passed for a 14-year-old. His slim armor was yellow and white save two areas: a star-shaped crystal of orange set at the base of two small projections which swept back from the center front of his helm over the ear pieces, curving up sharply at the ends to form twin antennae. A huge grin graced his features, two hazel eyes glistening as he ran up to X and grabbed his hand, forcing him to shake hands with him before X even knew what hit him.  
  
"Oh wow, Megaman X!" he exclaimed happily, vigorously shaking the hand he held captive. "I can't believe it! THE Megaman X! Oh I'm so honored to meetcha!"  
  
X coughed nervously and finally managed to gently pry his hand away from the other reploid. "Please, just call me X. And... uh... Who are you?"  
  
"Oh okay, X." The little ball of energy seemed to calm down somewhat. He stood back a bit, standing himself proudly. "I'm Delta, the new tech here at this base. I came here almost a week ago now."  
  
"Huh." X blinked. Cain had called for another tech? When had that happened? He certainly wasn't aware of it.  
  
Delta blinked as well. "You didn't know? You mean they didn't tell _you_? Of all people? I have my license and registration form, if you want to see it. Just let me go back to my room and-"  
  
"No no, that's fine!" X offered hurriedly. The kid was cute and all, but a little much on the hyper side. Who knew what he'd start off on if X let him go through with that. "If you're in this building, you must be registered. Honestly, I'm in a bit of a rush right now so, if you'll excuse me." He waved politely as he started to trot off, ignoring his back's painful protests as he went. Before he had even rounded the corner, Delta had given him at least three different farewells in addition to a salute, which was required out of respect for higher ranking Hunters, X agreed, but still... Thank the gods it didn't occur to him until after the blue Hunter was well out of range that he had been nearly limping before they'd met, but seemed fine after.  
  
That done and over with, X decided to keep himself moving quickly lest he risk running into another chatter box before he got to his bunk. Luckily for him, the rather large apartment complex that made up the barracks was just outside the back of the registration center, so he didn't have too much farther to go. Unluckily for him, there was no way he could have known beforehand what had happened while he was out.  
  
Typing in his code, X pressed his forehead against the wall and stalled a moment before sliding the door open. He pushed himself away, gritting his teeth against the stinging ache that followed, and turned to enter. It never crossed his mind that there might be someone in his room when he'd lived alone for the past few months, so when he saw a strange reploid lying there in a bed across from his that he had never seen before, he stopped dead in his tracks, mouth slightly open. It took a moment for him to realize just who it was. "Forte? What are you doing here?"  
  
The reploid stared up at him and blinked once, then rolled lazily over on his side facing X. "I'm your new roommate," he yawned. Apparently, he'd just been napping when X came in. "They were supposed to email you about it and let you know yesterday. Didn't you get it?"  
  
"I haven't checked mine lately," X sighed, beginning to feel drowsy, and called off his armor. _Finally_, he thought, relieved. _Drugs are taking effect_. Afterwards, he laid himself carefully down on his bed, on his stomach so at least he didn't have to worry about the wound stretching itself out while he had his own nap. "I don't care right now. I just wanna go to sleeeeeep." For emphasis, he turned his head slightly to the side and threw an arm over his face.  
  
A small smile spread over Forte's lips. "Tired much?"  
  
"No, hurt."  
  
The smile disappeared, taken over by something that could have been curiosity or maybe concern. "What happened?"  
  
"Got cut down my back and had to have it sewn up."  
  
"Ow."  
  
With that last word came silence. For X, it was a sweet, blissful silence. Only five minutes afterward saw him in a quiet slumber. In complete agreement, Forte soon found himself asleep again as well.  
  
--------------------  
  
It was a little after five in the afternoon when the alarm rang out for the second time that day, knocking Zero out of his concentration. Irritatedly, he glanced up at the speaker system and briefly considered taking a shot at it, but he ignored that urge for the moment to listen to the announcement that blared from the little gray box.  
  
_"This is an emergency. Commanders of units 0 and 5 are to report to General Ryot immediately. Members of units 0 and..." _  
  
Groaning, Zero took off running towards the briefing room. He never even heard the rest of the speaker's words - he didn't really need to anyway. Finding the building he was looking for was a snap. Just inside the doors, it opened up to a large auditorium with rows and rows of chairs all in perfect lines facing the front of the room, a holographic projector, and a podium.  
  
At the podium stood none other than General Ryot. He was, by far, the youngest leader in his physical appearance. He had the looks of a 20-someodd-year-old; soft, hazel eyes that glistened brightly in almost any light; and thick armor painted in blue, brown and white colors. He spoke so kindly in casual conversation that you couldn't imagine him ever out on a battle field, but rather indoors reading through historic books or discussing famous works of art. Many found it difficult that this Hunter could be intimidating at all to his enemy, if not for his enormous size - the reploid was just three inches shy of being 8 feet tall. But no, he was quite the opposite. He fought with a white beam saber using a fighting practice that he had developed himself - something rare among the Hunters, yet he didn't force his styles on his soldiers. He was skilled in many types of defense and combat and let his soldiers choose the ways that they felt the most comfortable with, but it wasn't his weapon of choice that made him the one in a million he was.  
  
It wasn't long after Zero had become a Hunter before he came to the conclusion that the huge reploid offered more than just his intense training programs. He once witnessed an occasion when one rookie Hunter had become so frustrated with himself when he couldn't seem to perfect a particular move, he had thrown his weapon down in disgust and actually fell to his knees in tears. While the rest of the soldiers either ignored his cries or stared at him blankly, adding to his humiliation, the general silently stepped over to his trainee, knelt beside him and put an arm about his shoulders. He didn't shout out insults or order him to try again; instead, he whispered words of encouragement and kept the much smaller Reploid in his embrace until he had calmed himself, picked up his saber, and got up to try again. Zero found it very much out of place and odd, to say the least, but it was to his amazement that, when Ryot had corrected the Hunter's stance, he executed the move perfectly.  
  
Though all of the commanders cared for their Hunters greatly, only a few were willing or had the time to offer such emotional support. Zero was sure he wouldn't need that kind of fatherly care any time soon, but he was glad to have it at all nonetheless. He regarded Ryot with a smile and a nod as he stepped up beside the other commander.  
  
At first glance, Dokanru's slender frame made him seem as though battle were not one of his strong points, but the reality was quite the opposite. When he had first applied for the job, his placement exam sent him straight into advanced training with an A ranking. Incredibly, he had acquired this with only a razor-edged boomerang, a plasma machete, and a cannon that he rarely used. His armor was colored a dark blue hue with gold highlights around his neck, wrists and ankles.  
  
As Zero approached, Dokanru offered a grin and a nod. "G'day mate," the Australian Hunter greeted with a lazy salute. "'ow's it goin for ya?"  
  
"Good enough," Zero said, returning the gesture. "What's happening now? Must be worse, seeing as you called two of us this time."  
  
Ryot nodded, turning to a holographic representation of the city and it's surrounding areas. "Indeed it is, but no one's really attacking us yet," he sighed grimly, then pressed a few buttons at the edge of the table. In response, a number of red blips popped up within the hologram about a foot away from the base. "Take a look and keep in mind that this has only happened within the last few hours. They're gathering at this spot, about five miles from our location, but satellite images are only showing us the remains of what used to be a small town, suggesting an underground base. We haven't located an entry point yet, and it's just concerning me more."  
  
"Bastahds," Dokanru cursed none too quietly. "They're makin 'emselves an ahmey, they are. Y'suppose 'ey've found a leadah?"  
  
"That's the worst case scenario." Ryot flipped through several maps before finally coming to the one he was looking for. The hologram now displayed the same area, but the Maverick blips were fewer than before. "This was what it looked like yesterday afternoon. As you'll notice, there is hardly enough activity for us to even send an investigation into it." He returned the visual back to the previous map. "But now... Yes, I'd say there's enough reason to assume that the Mavericks have found something of a coordinator. They've been there for about an hour now, and there's still more gathering. I'd like you two to get your unit members together and check it out. The scouts we've sent earlier today reported heavy turret fire guarding the outer buildings, and they couldn't get within fifty feet. You'll have to stay on your toes, understood?"  
  
Both Hunters nodded, then turned and headed back out the door side-by-side when they were dismissed. Quietly, Zero listened to Dokanru release a string of interesting vocabulary under his breath as they reached a speaker at the end of the hall and sent an announcement throughout the compound, calling their units in for instructions before they teleported out to meet the threat. Under any other situation, he would have laughed at the commander's hilarious creativity with his words, but they had other things to worry about.  
  
Heaving a deep sigh, Zero awaited for his soldiers to arrive, sensing something ominous in the air so suddenly. He did not have a good feeling about this.  
  
--------------------  
  
In the training center, Forte crept silently around a bush, searching the area thoroughly before he rushed across the way and ducked behind an ancient stone wall. He cursed mentally, rather peeved with his situation. They had started at opposite ends of the arena, but despite twenty minutes gone by of intense searching there was still no sign of his opponent. _Where the hell is he?_ he thought to himself as he made another scan of the layout. Instead of simply darting to the next shield he could find, he pressed his back against the wall and waited. He strained his hearing for the slightest sound, even closed his eyes as he did if it would help, but even ears as keen as his found nothing. After a moment, he opted to look around again. That was when he heard it, the snap of a twig in the forest just a few feet in front of him.  
  
The black reploid froze, kept his eyes shut, and listened. There came a silence afterwards, then a rustling sound, as though something were moving through the bushes. With some surprise, he realized the noises were coming from an area of space that had, moments before, been almost directly behind him, and they were slowly but surely creeping toward him.  
  
_That little shit_, he thought, genuinely impressed. _Here I've been looking for him all this time and he's right in front of me_. Smiling, he allowed himself to sink down into the tall grasses at his feet. Only then did he open his eyes again as he started to drag himself on his stomach back over to the bush he had used as cover before. _Alright, he wants to play that way, does he?_  
  
Using his elbows to pull himself along, Forte kept his ears trained on the sounds of the other reploid no more than fifteen feet from his position. He kept crawling along, gradually closing in on the other, following him this way and that until he had found a trail of bent grass blades. A victorious grin spread across his face. Now that his path was already pressed for him, he wouldn't have to worry so much about giving himself away, in turn allowing him to sneak up just that much closer to his opponent.  
  
Forte painstakingly made his way along the trail, stopping whenever he heard the other pause before he went ahead. In no time, he was staring right at the blue reploid he had been hunting. X was staring off ahead of himself, looking around for the black Hunter in clear confusion, but the position he was in was just too perfect. Even though this was supposed to be a training simulation, there was no way Forte could have not done what he was about to do.  
  
He moved so slowly that it were almost as though he were not moving at all, but in a matter of minutes he had gathered his feet underneath him. With one small command, he activated his cannon, then began to waddle just a bit closer. To his advantage, X had not heard him, nor had he moved since Forte laid eyes on him. X was waiting for him to make the first move, it seemed, but then he began to crawl off again, leaving the other to creep awkwardly after him. When X stopped to listen again, it was his downfall.  
  
Without warning, Forte suddenly leapt onto the back of the azure Hunter, screaming something terrible. In his startlement, X yelped loudly and tried to roll away, but by that time the black reploid was already on his back, his cannon pressed lightly to the rear of his helmet.   
  
Sitting proudly atop his catch, Forte smirked. "Got ya."  
  
"Damnit!" X slammed a fist down into the dirt with an aggravated cry.  
  
The next thing either of them knew, they were rendered unconscious by a powerful force only to awaken moments later. With the game ended, the simulation had shut itself down, sending them back to their own bodies and the real world.  
  
"I reiterate," X sighed as he disconnected himself from the computer. "Damnit!"  
  
Beside him on a separate table, Forte began laughing uncontrollably, earning him a dirty scowl from the other. He quickly laid himself back down to avoid a stray flying bolt flung at him in response. He could only calm himself to ask, "This just isn't your day, is it?" before going back into a fit of snickering.  
  
"Obviously." Groaning, X pushed himself off his table. He glanced over at Forte, who was still at it. Thoughts of revenge floated through his mind, each one more intriguing than the last, but they were rudely interrupted by the beeping of an incoming announcement. His mood didn't permit such distractions, but he listened to it half-heartedly anyway. It had something to do with units 0 and 5, nothing that concerned him, but Forte seemed vexed by it - he quieted immediately after making a loud, irritated sound and hopped back to his feet.   
  
"What's with this?" he groaned, pacing around a little. "I think by now I've done more than prove that I'm a good fighter, but they're still not giving me any missions. I don't get it. I've been here two days, there have been several attacks during that time, and I haven't been allowed to participate in any of them. Why won't they let me help out?"  
  
The azure Hunter's scowl faded, seeing his friend in such aggravation, and he allowed a small sigh. Forte had a point. He had done exceptionally well in the simulations he had been assigned to take, defeating anything that stood in his way from the little Metools up to the armored tanks with twin missile cannons. He was doing so well that Ryot bumped him up from computer generated enemy targets to sessions with some of the higher ranking Hunters where he was currently in a neck-and-neck competition with X. By then there was no doubt in anyone's mind of his skills - he'd even been given a rank B status and had been enlisted in along side X in the 17th unit. Yet, for some unknown reason, Ketsu had insisted that Forte be kept within the premises, restricted to computer simulation training and exercises. It was... strange, to say the least.  
  
He was so wrapped in his thoughts that he was unaware of the stare Forte was giving him from across the room. "HEY, answer me!" he shouted suddenly, waving an arm in front of X and effectively startling him from his ponderings.  
  
"What?" The slightly smaller Hunter blinked a few times. "Sorry, I didn't hear you."  
  
Forte groaned his irritation, but closed his eyes to calm himself. "Look, maybe we should go talk to Ketsu about this. He keeps putting me off and putting me off and if he's not doing that he's advising me to stick with my training until he can 'figure something out,' whatever that means. I've got a feeling that if he sees the two of us there, he'll at least give me a better explanation."  
  
"Perhaps," X agreed quietly. "But if we're going to go, we'd best do it now, before he starts getting patients to attend."  
  
"Sounds good to me. Let's go."  
  
--------------------  
  
Data, most of it damaged beyond hope of repair, littered the computer screen to which Ketsu had intently fixed himself. He was angry, he was violated, and he was sorely wishing Forte's old body had been a maverick so he could take its head off. Of late, he had discovered some of Forte's memory files had been tampered with, as though someone other than himself had accessed them in order to attempt repairs or some such mischief. It had started as a gut feeling that he almost ignored, but he had installed a tracking program that would alert him each time the computer was turned on of any actions that had been performed the last time the machine was started up.  
  
The instant he booted up his system, the message popped onscreen, just as it had for the last three days, but this time the programs opened, the tasks performed, none of it was anything he had done. Someone was accessing his user name and searching his information without his permission.  
  
Before he could lift up the nearby phone receiver to report the intrusions, there was a knock at the door. He turned to the interruption, and if looks could kill, the door would have self-destructed. The medic growled softly to himself, but he took a deep, calming breath, minimized the status window, and asked his visitors to enter. It might have done him some good if X had come by himself - he and the azure reploid got along quite well and had enjoyed many a chat - but oh no. Forte stepped into the room just behind him, and his mood dipped back down. There was no doubt in his mind what they wanted and that Forte had put them up to it.  
  
Even if he wanted to, Ketsu couldn't have managed a smile to save himself. "Look, I know you're here to talk about getting your status improved, but now's not a good time for that."  
  
Puzzled, X regarded him with a questioning gaze. "Why not?"  
  
"Someone's been hacking into my computer. I just found out today."  
  
Even Forte had his reaction to that news, and it was just what Ketsu had predicted. "Hacking into your computer? Who'd do that?"  
  
"No clue, but I've got a good idea who it might be."  
  
"Who?" asked X.  
  
It was then that the doctor turned in his chair, fully facing Forte with an accusing stare. Nothing was said; nothing needed to be said, and the black Hunter was not happy at all with the situation he suddenly found himself in.  
  
"How in the hell did you come to the conclusion that I did it?" he demanded angrily, shooting the medic an icy glare that was returned to him ten-fold.  
  
"Well it _was_ your data that was tampered with, Forte, and you _do_ know in whose systems to start searching for it. Why don't you tell me?"  
  
"Oh, is that all? Just because I-"  
  
"Guys, knock it off!" X suddenly yelled, just loud enough to gain the spotlight. He stomped over in between the two, at least silencing them for the moment. "Need I remind you that arguing will get you no where?... Now, come on. I've been with Forte in training for most of his short time here. There's no way it could be him."  
  
Indignantly, the black reploid huffed and turned away from the scene; the medic sighed, pressing two fingers to his forehead in a slightly apologetic bow, but not a word was spoken from either for an extensive time. Admitting to his fault, Ketsu was the one to end the silence.  
  
"Alright, I was being rash," he said, his voice calm again. "I'm sorry for that, but when you consider that he's the only one other than me, Cain, Ryot, Zero, and yourself who know about those files... Well, I can narrow that one down real fast for you. Cain's the only one who knows my password other than Ryot, and I trust them enough not to wonder if they've been pirating my data. It doesn't seem likely to me that either Zero or you would hack into my computer, which leaves only one other option."  
  
A second odd silence dominated, and both Hunters stared at each other quietly, defiance and accusation flying between them until X again set up a barrier in the middle of the battlefield. "That still doesn't mean that he did it," he pointed out softly. "Now would you please just calm down? We can get a scan done of your system to tell us exactly what's been done and from where it was done and you know it, so please?"  
  
A gruff sigh was heard; Ketsu nodded, frustrated. "I know... I know... This just pisses me off."  
  
"I don't doubt it," X said sympathetically. "I'd be angry too." He turned to Forte then; the black reploid was staring blankly at his feet. "Hey, you alright with this? He apologized and everything..."  
  
Forte said nothing, only nodded in response. After a moment, he turned back to the medic, hostilities forgotten and replaced with a curious suspicion. "Why would anyone be hacking for my files anyway?"  
  
The medic sighed, glancing to the side for a moment before he responded. "Well, you're new here, that much is obvious, but it's not like we've never had a rookie in this organization before. Most likely, they're trying to find out more about you. There's nothing public about your records yet; we haven't had time to finish everything for that level of viewing. Other than that..." Trailing off, Ketsu furrowed his brows in thought, as if considering another option. "Unless there's a spy among us, but I don't even want to think that, what with the hell we're getting from the Mavericks and all."  
  
X sighed, returning his gaze to the darker Hunter, but Forte's features betrayed no emotion, nor did he seem inclined to further the subject. In the next minute, he turned slowly and left the room, only telling them that he would be in training the rest of the day.


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N**: I especially hate the way this one came out, but I'm too busy to work on it with all the mess I have to deal with. Ugh, I swear, if I ever finish this thing, it'll be a miracle. Then again, if you people really want me to finish it...

I'm not asking for reviews, I swear.

Kyogre: Thanks for the review! WHOOO!!!! I finally got one! As for Rock and Roll and all them, I had no plans to include them in this. Now that I think about it, it is pretty sad, but Forte doesn't rememeber any of it, so he's not complaining. I'm planning something though... but you'll just have to wait to see what it is. I'm so mean.

**Sunrise**  
Chapter 4: Dark Clouds Over the Horizon  
  
Satellite imaging had advanced to amazing proportions over the centuries, and Zero found himself no less impressed or surprised by what he found at the actual site of his general's growing worry than he had been back in the briefing room. From his vantage point among the trees, he could see the turrets attached to several run-down buildings in the area. Judging by the look of things, it appeared as though the Mavericks either didn't know how to hide their weapons very well or they had only half-heartedly attempted to conceal the guns. He didn't want to think it, but if these Mavericks truly had any meaningful organization, most likely he would come to discover the latter sooner than later. Either way it ran, they were simple defense guns, easily destroyed, and it wasn't so much them that he worried about.  
  
"Whaddya see up 'ere?" Dokanru shifted impatiently behind the bushes, not at all liking their current task. A short distance behind him, the members of his and Zero's units stood patiently, awaiting whatever commands they would receive. There were twelve of them in all, and Dokanru's half were as various as Zero's own soldiers in their designs and weaponry.  
  
Zero gave him a quick side glance, then dropped out of the tree he had been in, landing with a soft thud right beside the navy reploid. "If they've really found a leader," he began, shooting a puzzled glare in the general direction of the town, "they're trying to insult us. Their outer defense is a joke - a rookie could handle it."  
  
"So you wanna go in an' poke around a bit? Try and find out what 'ey're up to?"  
  
Giving a quiet nod, Zero turned to his unit. A plan was quickly formulated, orders were given, and within five minutes the two units began their assault. Zero took the lead; he and his soldiers darted ahead from cover to available cover as they took their leave of the forest and headed straight into the abandoned town. Behind them, Dokanru's unit provided backup - those who specialized in projectile weapons aided where they could as they headed in at a slight angle.  
  
As expected, the Mavericks' defenses kicked in almost as soon as they began to advance. The guns fell almost too easily; Zero wondered why the scouts hadn't tried to take them out to get more information about the area. Nearing the town and even crossing into the dry and dirty streets, the protection offered for the Mavericks was almost an embarrassment. It quickly occurred to the crimson Hunter that perhaps the gunfire wasn't the only thing that kept the scouts at bay.  
  
He barely had time to ponder the possibilities, for in that next instant, just as the fighting began to die down as most all of the turrets had been destroyed, a huge brown Maverick leapt out from the cover of one building. None could mistake the design - it was another Destroyer - yet this one lacked the Overdrive lasers the ones before it had carried. Zero's unit instantly met its angry roars with their own angry weapons, and in a minute, the lone Maverick met its death.   
  
"Awww, fine then," Dokanru whined playfully. Zero turned slightly to the other unit commander, allowing a small smile at the deep blue Hunter's contagious grin. "Take all the fun for y'self."  
  
"There'll be plenty more, I'm sure," Unit 0's leader assured. He gave a nod to one of his men; the reploid lifted one hand to the side of his helm, activating a scanning device. He turned his head slowly, making a wide sweep of the area before pointing to what looked to be the remains of a warehouse or a storage place.  
  
"Something's definitely there," the soldier affirmed. "I'm getting what looks like either an underground gate or a tunnel, but there's no doubt it's a secret opening, and not one very well hidden at that. Maverick readings on the surface are zilch, but I don't expect it'll stay that way."  
  
"Thanks, Kime." Zero gave a satisfied nod, then turned to Dokanru. "You wanna take the lead this time?"  
  
"'s only fair." The Australian Hunter gave his unit a quick hand gesture, motioning for them to follow him as they approached the pitiful structure. The weather worn walls looked about ready to collapse, yet through one massive hole near the top, they could easily make out an underlying frame of support. By the way the metal beams glistened in what little light was available inside the building, it appeared as though the frames had been built just recently. Kime's devices hardly ever failed him, but this evidence merely furthered his discovery.  
  
Even as they stood before the weakened building, the Hunters found themselves strangely deprived of Maverick attackers. Had it been a real threat to the city, one would have expected more of a resistance than this.  
  
"I don't like it," Kime whispered to his commander, his glaring silver eyes trained on the only visible door. Zero diverted his gaze from the other unit to his Hunter, his own weapon firmly in his hold.  
  
"I don't think any of us feel any differently." The tan Hunter's only response was to tighten his grip on his rifle.   
  
A moment later, Dokanru pressed his back against one side of the door; one of his unit took the other side while a third stood poised a few feet away. Zero silently nodded, his signal that he and his soldiers were at his ready. The Unit 5 commander suddenly jumped in front of the door and took a mighty kick at it; the structure literally flew off its hinges, the badly rusted metal unable to hold under such force. It landed with a loud crash somewhere behind a stack of cardboard boxes that looked to have been made, oddly enough, recently.  
  
The noise alone easily announced the Hunters' uninvited arrival, if the Mavericks had been listening at all, but still, to their dismay, not a single Maverick presented itself. Dokanru carefully entered the room, sticking close to anything that provided a hiding spot as the rest of his unit and Zero's followed suit.  
  
The inside of the warehouse was suspiciously barren; the only real occupants were the support beams and several boxes, some of which had begun to rot with age while others looked as though they had just come from a factory. Zero tentatively kicked at one of the newer ones, effectively creating a large hole in the side that instantly began to release a multitude of packaging peanuts. Closer inspection revealed that the container held nothing more than a badly broken lighting fixture. One of Dokanru's unit opened three more boxes, none of which held anything more threatening than the first had.  
  
"I'll be damned," Zero sighed. "These are just decoys, something to throw us off."  
  
"Li'l shits," Dokanru cursed. "'ey think 'is is funny, do they?"   
  
"What's in there?" one of Zero's unit asked, pointing to a second door behind another stack of boxes, this one clearly much younger than the first. It hummed softly with electricity pulsing through one of four identical yellow lights that ran around the top and sides. The large width of it suggested reploids of a slightly similar size may have passed through its threshold. A small panel, something of a number pad with symbols instead of numbers protruded from a plate of metal sticking out to its right. Adjoining its edges, a large, circular structure took up nearly half the other side of the room.  
  
"An elevator," Kime said, scanning the object thoroughly. "It's completely hollow, but under the floor, there's a tunnel heading down as far as I can read. Looks like it can only hold six of us at once though."  
  
"If we can figure out how to open it," Zero pointed out, stepping up to the pad. After a moment of staring at it, he experimentally pressed a few random buttons. Not surprisingly, a red message popped up on the screen reading "ERROR."   
  
Dokanru scoffed. "The 'ell we're gonna figure 'at one out. Why don't we just blahst the damn thing open?"  
  
"We could wall-slide down to the bottom, in that case," another soldier suggested, but Zero shook his head firmly.  
  
"No way are we risking it at this point. We don't know what's waiting for us down there."  
  
"But considering it's Maverick-controlled..."  
  
Well, he had a point, Zero reasoned. If they were spotted, and it was a large possibility they already had been, taking the enemy's way back up to the surface was definitely not a safe route to travel. Trapped in the elevator, what more would they be able to do other than wait for an ambush or worse? With a sigh, the crimson Hunter agreed to the plan, and he stepped away a safe distance with a few others while Dokanru and some of his Hunters took to destroying the elevator.  
  
Within a few minutes, the entire structure had been leveled and the flooring ripped away, leaving torn and twisted metal and sparking wires in its place. Kime quickly made a second scan of the dark shaft before any of them set foot inside it. This time, he found it to be rather short - the tunnel descended only about 100 or so feet before it abruptly stopped at what looked like a branch off of two rather large paths that started separate horizontal roads.  
  
Dokanru insisted on taking the lead, and without argument, he and his unit began their descent first with Zero and his closely behind. At the bottom, they discovered one of the paths Kime found shortly led to a door; the other continued to climb further down into the depths of the earth where it turned sharply to the right and could be seen no more. Still, the Hunters found no evidence of Maverick activity nor of the Mavericks themselves - absolutely no resistance was offered, even as they chose roads and went their separate ways.  
  
The blonde haired commander led his unit over to the door as Dokanru's unit headed further underground. Beside this door, another panel was set into the wall, similar to the first, but with two simple buttons on it. One was red, and on it, the word "Open" was printed; the second was blue and said "Close."  
  
Zero glared at it - it couldn't have been that easy. Yet, once he pressed the red button, he found it was. The door irised open with a hiss, allowing them access into the next room. Once again, not a Maverick was to be found. Several blank screens lined one wall of this chamber; below each screen sat a chair and a holographic keyboard.  
  
Slowly, the commander stepped over to one of these keyboards and examined it. He had seen ones like it back in HQ, but the technology was only reserved for briefing rooms and higher ranking officials. Never before had he seen something so advanced in Maverick hideouts - they couldn't work together to save their lives to create or steal anything like this, and he knew what it meant. The Mavericks had definitely appointed a leader, and since that was now the case, he also realized their mission priority had suddenly changed.  
  
--------------------  
  
The depths of the Maverick base kept winding farther and farther down, and Dokanru liked it no more than he liked the concept of what they were now faced with. The deeper he led his unit, the more ominous everything seemed, like a dark cloud on the horizon foreboding the storm to come. He sighed inwardly, peering around a corner, yet still finding nothing to oppose his intrusion.  
  
That alone unnerved him. How could he have made it this far into the complex with all five of his unit completely undiscovered? No camera, no security device, not even a scanner had been found along the way. If that wasn't bad enough, they'd come to the conclusion that the base was just one big line of descending rooms containing various technologies adjoined via a series of ducts and tunnels. There seemed to be no other path to take aside from down to the next level or up to the previous - they'd passed through four rooms like this so far. As Dokanru approached the door to the next tunnel, he briefly considered that this might be all they would find.  
  
Two of his Hunters defensively set out into the hallway before their leader, typically finding no resistance, but baring their weapons in case. Unlike any other passages before it, this one leveled out and ended a short distance from the opening at a second, larger door. In the center of the door, a red eye-like protrusion cast off a faint light, bathing everything near it in a haze of crimson. Somehow, Dokanru had the feeling they had come to the end of the line. One hand went to the button that would open it, and yet, he hesitated a moment, steeling himself for whatever he would find on the other side.  
  
_Why do I suddenly feel so uncertain about 'is?_  
  
Up shuttered the door. With its activation, lights clicked to life immediately, illuminating what might as well have been a cavern. The walls appeared to be constructed of stone, though from the flickering of some areas, Dokanru knew well enough it was simply a hologram. The ceiling towered some fifty or so feet over their heads; the floor nearly doubled that length in diameter. It had something of a cylindrical shape, and at least twelve support beams had been raised in a definite pattern about the room. All in all, it appeared as though they had just stumbled across a battle dome.

One that had already been set up for them...  
  
There, in the center of the arena, stood his answer to Dokanru's worries. The Maverick stood almost seven and a half feet in height, besting even a fully armored Zero by a good five inches at least. His armor had been stained purple and dark gray. The helmet of the reploid allowed no facial feature to show through - the only opening was a sort of T shape across the front from which one, glowing red eye burned eerily.   
  
He stood facing the Hunters as though confident he was the more deadly of the two, and with a shoulder-mounted gun his only visible weapon, the Unit commander wisely made no assumptions. There had never been a doubt in his mind before that the Mavericks knew they were there and were simply playing dead. But enemies had finally shown themselves, and that in its own was a relief - at least the Hunters didn't have to look for them anymore. On the other hand, this was not a good situation - whoever the Maverick was, he had to be one of their stronger fighters or he would not have been sent alone.  
  
The commander didn't bother giving his unit orders - he knew well enough they were already in position to attack on his command. Instead, he concerned himself only with the Maverick. "An' 'o might you be?"  
  
The reploid made a small sound, one that sounded something like a laugh. "You needn't worry about my name," he replied cockily, his surprisingly smooth voice echoing somewhat beneath his helm. "You'll be dead long before you can return to your friends to tell them."  
  
"Tell me anyway," Dokanru easily flipped back. "I just might live to repeat it."  
  
The Maverick shifted his weight to one leg, propping a hand on that hip. "Very well. I'm not usually so inclined to doing my enemies favors, but since you _are_ the first to face me, I suppose you can have the honor of knowing my name. I am Vile, second in command of the Maverick army."  
  
"Dokanru, commandah of th' Unit 5 Maverick Huntahs."  
  
They only had a moment of peace before the battle started. Dokanru barely had time to place himself in a defensive stance before the Maverick suddenly yanked down his cannon and opened fire. He and his unit leapt away from the blast just as it slammed into the now closed door behind them. The commander caught a pillar and jumped away again, glancing down briefly at the area of impact. The sight drew a curse from him. Most of the entire door had been blown completely apart leaving twisted metal and fizzling wires in its wake.  
  
He cursed a second time, yet his words were cut short at the sound of a horrible scream. As he found the ground once again, Dokanru's gaze shot over to the source. This time, he did not swear at what he saw, for there, scattered in the wake of another cannon blast, lay the arm of one of his crew. The reploid knelt on the ground, half curled around the severed limb in pain.  
  
However disabled he was, Vile wasn't about to let him live to fight another day. While Dokanru watched in horror, the Maverick released a second shot at the fallen reploid, effectively decapitating him. Vile then rolled to the side to escape an oncoming attack aimed for him, then cleanly blew a hole straight through the female reploid's stomach.  
  
Two of his most precious taken out, and the battle had barely begun.  
  
Trembling in a rage, Dokanru rushed at his enemy screaming something awful. One hand drew the boomerang back just as Vile turned to face the commander. A reverberating whoosh cut through the air along with its blade, singing a farewell to the Maverick whose neck it was about to slice through.  
  
But the cannon leveled out all too fast.   
  
--------------------  
  
As they had in all previous rooms before, the lights flickered on as Zero and his unit cautiously entered the chamber ahead. They had searched all others on this level, and this one was to be the last. The commander sighed in frustration, his gaze wandering around the small storage area. It was just that, a storage area. No Maverick, no security devices, not even a computer in sight, only the same cardboard boxes they had seen above ground.  
  
Perhaps the Mavs had picked up their signals crossing the forest coming to them and vacated the area, giving them nothing more than ghosts to chase. Zero almost gave up and opted to call off the mission when a small section of his upper breast plate began to blink a green color. The crimson Hunter pressed a finger to it curiously, but before he could say anything, Dokanru's frantic voice came screaming to him through the other end.  
  
"It's a fuckin _trap_!" the frantic Hunter yelled. "Get yah ahses out of 'ere! 'e took out my entire unit!"  
  
"Dokanru!" Zero felt a chill run down his back hearing the other's words. "Where are you? Are you alright?"  
  
The red Hunter waited tensely, wincing slightly when a cry of pain was heard. "Meet me back at th' elevatah," the commander gasped. It seemed that even speaking, though his voice came clearly through the line, hurt him. "If I'm not there in five minutes, you take your unit an' get th' bloody 'ell out of 'ere!"  
  
Zero nodded, then verbally confirmed their new mission priority. The line went dead almost immediately thereafter, but he wasn't certain if it was he or the other commander who had cut it. In the next instant, it didn't matter. All Unit 0 needed was a look from their commander and they were all up and running for the exit point.  
  
They arrived first at the final tunnel and stopped there to wait. All eyes and weapons were trained on the round door at the opposite end of the hallway. A minute passed, but nothing ever happened.  
  
_Come on_, Zero mentally pleaded, though he knew it to be pointless. The thought crossed his mind several times that he should go after the other Hunter, but he decided to wait. Dokanru warned him of a trap, though what he meant by that, the imagination could only guess.   
  
Another minute later, the crimson Hunter would wait no longer. Giving his startled unit the same orders Dokanru had given him, Zero bolted down the passage. He had no sooner run half the distance needed to reach the door than it finally opened, and Dokanru all but fell through the threshold.  
  
"Dokanru!"  
  
Whatever injuries he had sustained had been well concealed through his voice over the radio link, as Zero and the others were more than horrified to learn. The entire left side of his body was badly burned from blast marks; his left arm had been either shot or melted completely off. Portions of his armor were scratched or cracked, and most of his jump suit had been burned or torn away, leaving broken and bleeding synth skin exposed. A nasty bruise marked his right cheek, and above that, the armor had been cruelly torn away, revealing a bloody river trailing down from under his sandy colored hair, now matted with vital fluids.  
  
Zero was at his friend's side in an instant, but neither had time for pleasantries. Carefully, the crimson commander placed the Australian Hunter over his shoulder before darting off again. Every time Dokanru cried out in pain, Zero winced and cursed whatever had hurt the navy Hunter so.  
  
Unit 0 was already a step ahead of him, and within a few minutes, they were all back outside the warehouse and in a safe teleportation zone. No one needed to tell them to take advantage of it - they were already gone before anything else could find them out.

**A/N**: Anyone ever watch the Americanized verison of Megaman? If you've ever seen it, you might've seen the episode where Vile and Spark Mandrel came back in time to get some kind of rod thingies. That's where I got the idea for Vile's voice. I still like it even though I haven't seen that crappy series in so long.


	6. Chapter 5

**A/N**: Wow. I have all of one reviewer and I'm still motivated to keep at it! Who would've thought one person could really make such a difference? Hey, I'm not complaining. I'm lovin it. I've got a small break from school work and where am I? Writing! I haven't been here in weeks! W00T!

Kyogre: Long monologue... Oooo... My head hurts. Don't worry about the original characters though. There's really only two or three you'll want to get acquainted with. You'll see that sooner or later. I know, originals can be confusing. I hate it myself, but I didn't want to throw in someone from the series itself when they didn't belong. I did mention that this story takes place before the first X game, right? OO... Oh hell...

I swear, I'll get my head on straight one day. As for now, on with the fic!

**Sunrise**

Chapter 5: Hesitance

_Vile.. 'e said 'is name was Vile... Before this is all ovah with... you... get 'im for me... Do it, Zero..._

Zero silently stepped through the doors to the infirmary, one hand partially covering the lower half of his face as though in thought, the other loosely propped on his hip. He wandered down the halls numbly, unaware of things or people around him; the words of his friend still playing through his audio sensors. His eyes saw nothing he passed - in his mind, he still saw Dokanru on the operating table, stripped bare of his armor, wincing in pain one moment, then fighting Ketsu and the other two violently the next.

The actual recovery efforts didn't faze Zero, even as he saw everything as he tried to hold the Australian Hunter down. It was the eyes of his friend that unnerved him. When he wasn't struggling, Zero saw there the creamy hazel irises glistening in agony. When Dokanru did fight, it were as though he was a different person altogether. He would scream and yell something terrible, like a wild animal caught painfully in a hunter's trap. The hazel would disappear then, fluctuating between the natural color and a blood red. When he stopped flailing, the red was gone.

He'd never seen anything like it, and he never wanted to see it again.

The moment Dokanru went limp, calm, eerily still despite the horrible pain he had to have been suffering from his injuries, Zero knew he was going to die right there in his arms. Then the navy Hunter had opened his eyes one last time. Had they been in any other situation, Zero would've thought him to be waking from a nightmare. He made no sound as he glanced around at the faces surrounding him and the look in his eyes was lethargic, but Zero felt the gentle tremors moving through his body. The Australian Hunter knew his time was nearing its end.

At last Dokanru found Zero's face, and that was when he gave his last message to the world before silently slipping away.

Something outside of his thoughts brought the crimson Hunter back to the present, and he looked up slowly. X stood some distance before him, eyes wide and mouth parted in shock.

"Zero, what happened?" asked X, venturing a step toward his friend. One hand went out tentatively, then retracted, uncertain. Zero blinked, not confused and yet not understanding the blue Hunter's meaning. He cast a lazy glance down at himself; he was splotched from head to toe in dark blood. Dokanru's blood. Belatedly, he realized he had not bothered to clean himself off after leaving his friend's deathbed. His hands were spotted with the drying substance as well, but it barely occurred to him that he might have stained his face also.

The sight was vaguely disturbing, but Zero paid it no mind. He shrugged and tilted his gaze back to X. "He didn't make it." His own voice surprised him - he sounded a little tired, but he'd imagined he would sound worse for the wear than that.

X's eyes widened all the more at the horrible news. His entire demeanor seemed to droop, and for once, Zero had nothing to say about it. The crimson Hunter straightened himself and made a short apology before heading down the hall the bathrooms. As he passed X, he paused and sighed, one hand reaching up to graze the shoulder of the smaller Hunter. A sympathetic gesture. Zero hesitated, almost certain the other would turn to him to cry into his shoulder as he had so many times before.

The pained look on the smaller Hunter's face stayed. Two tears streamed down either cheek, then a third slowly followed, but the azure reploid didn't turn to his friend or bawl. He nodded, brought one hand up to grasp the other's briefly, then silently, slowly moved to the opposite end of the hall. Numbly surprised, Zero wondered over his friend for a moment. Then, finding no reason to stand there at all, he headed to his original intents, his thoughts elsewhere.

Most of the red liquid had dried by the time Zero got water to it, but it washed away easily anyway. The bowl of the sink swirled with ragged streaks of red in an unnaturally pink water. He watched the colors blend all over again as he rinsed the last of the blood from his armor. Listlessly, Zero stared at the hypnotic flow, unblinking for some time, and it seemed only right somehow that he should just stare. There was the last of his friend swirling down the drain, and he felt a sudden guilt. What it was over, he wasn't certain, but the feeling was there nonetheless.

A loud, sudden noise startled Zero out of his thoughts, and he looked around suspiciously before realizing it was simply another announcement over the intercom. Damnably, the walls of the washroom reflected and enhanced the sound, but it was more the message that had Zero swearing for a brief moment. A meeting had been scheduled for later that day, one concerning the leaders of every unit and a few of the higher officers as well. The others weren't to be left out either - they could watch it over the monitors most everywhere in the compound.

The event was not for another two hours at least, but the crimson Hunter turned and quietly walked out of the room anyway, not bothering to acknowledge the other Hunters around him as he did so. He needed to think for a while, and for that, silence was needed.

--------------------

Of all who had been called to the meeting, none came out of it more agitated than Ketsu. For a Maverick organization to begin now, at a time like this, he knew he had but one choice, and that was to fulfill Forte's request. They were a bit underhanded enough as it was, even more so now that they had just lost one of their top Hunters. Yet, he still wasn't certain their newest Hunter would be completely reliable out on the field. Though numerous scans of his system and memory core turned up nothing but recent events after his activation, the medical tech worried that memories from Forte's past might yet have found their way into the Hunter's mind. The data was so old, the files so almost foreign to their technology that they might very well have gone unnoticed. In that case, if Forte could recall any of the memories Ketsu had attempted to upload into his system, it might cause any number of reactions, and an unpredictable reploid of such talent among their ranks was the last thing they needed.

It was why he had kept Forte out of any missions up until now, but now he had only trust to rely on. Forte was one of their best, no question about it. Being such, he had to be sent out with the others to help eradicate the Mavericks before their forces became any stronger than they already were. Ketsu didn't like that anymore than he liked signing off Forte's release form, but the dark Hunter hadn't shown any signs of remembrance and even if he did recall some things, he either had said nothing or had simply shrugged it off.

Through all of his pestering and persistence, Forte merely watched blankly as Ketsu handed in the form, both their signatures authorizing the Hunter's okay for actual mission runs permanently imprinted into the data pad. He gave no outward indication that he had finally scored a major victory with the Hunters, nor did he revert to his normally cocky state once the deal was said and done. He simply stared at Ketsu almost innocently. After a moment, realizing nothing would be said between them, the purple reploid finally had had enough of it and stepped a little to the side to walk past him. Before he had gone more than a few paces, Forte called back to him.

The tech stopped in midstep, tensing slightly. "Yes?"

His response halted, hesitating, uncertain. "I... know you don't completely trust me yet, but..." He paused, searching for words and knowing there were none. "You won't regret this."

Ketsu sighed heavily. "For the sake of this organization and the people within it," he began wearily, "you understand, it's not personal. I must question everything that might possibly go wrong. I didn't hold you back because I don't trust you, I just don't trust what might happen _to _you out there. It's my job to ensure the safety of every reploid in this compound because I make it so. You're no different."

Forte considered his words and somehow found them odd. Didn't the Hunters fight to protect people too? Ketsu had to know that – he worked for them just as the black Hunter now did. "And so it's become mine as well..."

The soft sound of a reploid's feet padding down the hall in the opposite direction was all Ketsu heard then, and with that, he took back to his own tasks as well, neither more nor less comforted by Forte's words. Only time would decide if or not he could believe them.

**A/N**: Is a very short chapter, yes. I couldn't think of anything else to write that wouldn't seem boring as hell, though there's a deal more I could've added. And I know it's boring, what I did put. This is what writer's block does to you. It's horrible. Please guys, take your medicine. Don't let it get you too.

Also, don't expect another chapter for another long while. I want to make the next longer and more eventful than this one has been. God help me...

Anyone know why the site isn't letting me put my little faces up? I make one and it erases part or all of it in the save process.


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N**: -happy-squee- Morereviewers! I'm buildin an army, I tell ya!

moonymonster: That was the whole point of that chapter. You weren't really supposed to know it was Forte then and there. I thought it was pretty obvious though, but that's just me cause I really bloody love him and would know him anywhere.... which reminds me. All of my posted fics have something to do with Forte. I need to change that.

Kyogre: Foreshadowing? Naaahhhh... But, dude, the library? I bloody work in a library! Woo! -hugs plotbunnies-

Bobcat Moran: Yeah, I kinda wanted to keep Dokanru around myself. He was so fun, the guy I had in my head as I wrote, but he wasn't from the original series and I didn't know what else to do with him. I thought about it recently and realized that if I had stuck him as the first commander of the 17th unit, his death would have made a good transition for X's up to commander of that unit. Then I realized X, at this point in my fic, still isn't ready for that, so I bummed.

About his accent, that was a fun one. 's the first time I ever did dialogue with an accented character and I was trying to stay as true to it as I could. Guess I overdid it... I swear, I really can't think outside that damn box sometimes. And hey, length is nooo problem. I love hearing from people. Gives me MOTIVATION. WOOOO!!!

Okie, now that I'm done squeaking about that... I've had very little hell with college recently, so let me keep listening to my Gravitation boys and perhaps I can kick my arse enough to get out a chapter or two here and now.

**Sunrise  
**Chapter 6: Let the Games Begin

The Hunters' presence at the warehouse the day before had been far from unnoticed. Anyone could have told them that, but still the Mavericks waited, keeping everyone at HQ on their toes. Three days later, satellite images and all that jazz brought the much awaited news to everyone: the Mavericks had somehow destroyed themselves and were gone for good. The rumored war to come was just a rumor after all, and the Hunters sat back and breathed a sigh of relief together in the knowledge that they wouldn't have to fight another day.

Or at least, that was how X had vainly hoped it would be. He thought for a moment, in the calm of his mind, what he would give to have things as they once were - quiet and boring, but peaceful, the only violence coming from the training simulations and the occasional scuffle among the rookies. In that moment, he managed to take out two more Mavericks, finishing off with a wild shot into the bunch before diving behind a rock for cover. Several blasts pelted the ground and air where he had just been. After five full minutes, the enemy fell silent again, a fatal mistake for one of them.

X quickly rolled out to the side, firing madly as he did. He was on his feet before the remaining four could catch a good lock on him, and by that time one more of their numbers had fallen. The one of the Mavericks seemed to spaz for a moment as the group fired blindly after the azure Hunter circling them, and X winced slightly. This Maverick was different than the Destroyers he was used to fighting. Destroyers were cold and precise, rarely ever missing their targets; they were killing machines, purely robotic. But this one seemed to feel some sort of emotion, if even on a low level. He was afraid now that the odds had slipped in his enemy's favor, panicky even.

Before X knew it, he had destroyed two more and left the last one standing in the middle of the forest, shaking and whimpering. He leveled out his buster at the Maverick, body posed in a defensive position, but that was where X hesitated. _Do I really have to kill him?_ he thought, wondering over the possible outcomes. It was so much easier to kill the Destroyers, X realized and grimaced slightly. At least he knew they didn't care how things ended so long as they carried out their mission. But something with feelings...

"Aren't y-you gonna kill m-me?" the Maverick squeaked out pitifully. He then dropped his weapon, effectively putting a wrench in his opponent's gut.

"Will you give me a reason to?" X waited, but refused to lower his cannon. As much as he wanted this to end peacefully, he decided it would be best if he didn't take chances.

The Maverick grinned nervously, waving his hands in front of him. "No no! I'll surrender! Just don't kill me, alright?"

X took a deep breath, debating, but for another, his lenience was too much.

Before either had a chance to react, a series of shots from somewhere to X's right crashed into the Maverick and a group of bushes behind him. The Maverick fell to his side, his face frozen in a mix of pain and shock that quickly relaxed as the body lost all ability to contract the biomechanical muscles. X let out a small cry, unconsciously taking a step toward the Maverick before realizing that something behind the Maverick had exploded right where the stray shots landed. Somewhere between anger, shock and confusion, X gazed slowly over at the attacker. There was Forte, kneeling in an odd position on the ground, glaring something awful at the blue Hunter. He stood slowly without a word - he needed none.

X returned the glare, now leaning toward his anger from his friend's hostile expression. "Why the hell'd you do that?!" he cried, gesturing to the now dead Maverick. "He was about to surrender!"

"And I suppose you thought he was sincere?" With a snort, Forte moved over to the smoldering spot in the bushes and lifted the broken barrel of what looked to be a sort of machine gun. "He had a buddy back here the whole time ready to take you down at any moment and there you are, giving them a perfect opportunity to do so if I've ever seen one."

Blinking, X stared at the gun. The proof was right there in front of him, yet he still didn't want to believe he had almost been shot dead in the middle of a trap. The Maverick sounded so honest and truly terrified... "You're starting to sound like Zero," X quickly huffed and turned his gaze elsewhere, but Forte glared more harshly at his friend and took a defensive step toward the other.

"X, these guys would've KILLED you and your whole family if they had the chance and you know it," he yelled, startling X. Never before had he heard his friend scream like this. Something about him was different now, and as X caught the look in the darker Hunter's eyes, the realization only doubled. Forte stood in a partial crouch, as he normally did when he argued with someone. But this time, there was an unusual wildness about him that the smaller Hunter had never felt before. It was almost unnerving... so much so that X opened his mouth to say something about it.

"Settle down," a third voice commanded firmly, cutting X off before he said anything. Both Hunters looked over to see Unit 17's commander standing there with one other of their unit behind him. "The battle's over, so return to base immediately. I'll expect a chat with you both once we get there." That said, the silver Hunter and the soldier teleported out, leaving X and Forte to do no more than scowl and follow them.

X hesitated, turning a softer gaze back to Forte in something of an apology, but the darker Hunter never saw it. His own glance had fallen to the ground to his left, but beneath the aggravation, there was something more. It never registered - in the next instant, he disappeared inside a purple light and was gone.

--------------------

A green and yellow panel slowly filtered across the top half of a black screen. Below that, a second, simliar panel mirrored it, but where there was yellow on the upper graph, streaks of red scratched like lightning over the bottom. As the scan suddenly halted, a small message box appeared to the far right of the lower panel. Ketsu read the words and swore softly. Turning to a second computer, he began typing in commands. At the final few lines, he paused and glanced sadly at the navy reploid lying serenely a capsule. He murmured something to the body before giving the final code to seal the lid for good.

The computer read normal reploid energy signatures as a stream of green and yellow - voluntary and involuntary mental and body functions. What was the top panel was Dokanru's vital readings from exactly five minutes and twenty-seven seconds before he ever entered the same room with this Vile Maverick.

"So what is all this medical mumbo jumbo?"

Ketsu offered the smaller reploid a brief glance, then turned to a third screen and began fiddling with the keyboard. "There's a lot in this," he groaned, "but it basically tells us we're dealing with a virus, and it's ugly as hell. Whatever it was, it tried to block signals from Dokanru's entire neural net and replace them with its own, all in a very short time. The end result is what you see here. His systems tried to fight it, couldn't take it, tried to repair him at the same time, couldn't take that either, and ultimately shut down for good."

Beside him, Delta let out a low groan. "That means we can't reconstruct him, doesn't it."

It wasn't a question; there was no need to respond. The grim look in the medic's eyes was enough, and it was a sad thing to have to come to terms with. The memory chip made the person - it was the human within the machine. Normally when a reploid was "killed," he or she could simply be rebuilt and put back in action if the chip hadn't been damaged too badly. Dokanru's had survived physical damage, but the virus had effectively corrupted his entire system. There was no way to tell how much of his chip had been exposed as well.

In effect, he could still be revived - to a reploid, being out of commision was about the human equivalent of a coma. But the likelihood that Dokanru would come back as a Maverick was great. Too great. Their options were none - they would have to delete one of their own soldiers.

The yellow reploid's eyes widened, but he nodded his understanding. He had never before seen or performed a reploid burial, but he knew how they were done. It was rather simple and much like that of a human burial, but with reploids, the arrangements were sometimes more difficult get in order. A human was one thing - people believed in human souls and in the divinity of such a thing. But a reploid was a machine, some would argue, and didn't deserve a burial. They had no soul, they loved to claim, and the death of a reploid most often had to be kept secret, the funeral held only in the presence of other reploids and those humans who loved or cared about him.

Delta wondered if perhaps even the great Megaman X and Zero and others like them, who fought for the sake of humanity, would receive a welcome burial if they ever truly died. There would always be someone who would oppose it most certainly. Even some of the Mavericks were better than the humans the Hunters fought so hard to protect. He shook his head frustratedly at the thought, and then turned back to his duties to clear his mind. Dokanru's funeral would be taken care of shortly, but for the moment, there was the virus to worry about.

--------------------

Unusual violence, red coloring in the eyes, and any indications of possible insanity. Those were the symptoms, and if it was as bad as the notifications said it was, the Maverick virus, as it was called, definitely gave the Hunters something to worry about. Recent Maverick activity coupled with this new development seemed unreal - just a few weeks ago, the Hunters were living life minute to minute, almost begging for something to happen. Now they were nearly overrun with missions and Maverick attacks. Most units had suffered losses to some extent and everyone was on edge. A war with the Mavericks could break out at any moment, they kept telling the media, but those actually fighting it knew a different version of the story: they weren't on the brink. The war had already begun.

No wonder everyone had suddenly quieted down around HQ, Jett wondered as he read the announcement carefully a second time, then lifted golden eyes to the only other occupant of the room vacantly. The other Hunter wasn't really paying any attention to anything at all; he seemed off in his own little world for the moment. He sat across the table, staring blankly at the cup loosely held between his armored hands. It was almost depressing to see him as he was. The boy was quiet enough as it was without having other things to weigh on his mind.

And now, with the virus running around on top of everything...

"Looks like we're in for the long haul, with this war and all."

Forte tilted his head up slowly and nodded. "I've heard it'll only get worse from here on out."

The print out was cast somewhere on the table to the side, out of the way. Jett straightened in his seat, shifting his weight a little as he did. "Your first mission went well, I see. I must admit, you impressed me. I haven't seen a newcomer do so well since Zero came along. You must've been something in your past life."

Slightly embarrassed, Forte turned his gaze to the walls. "I guess. Memory fails me though." He let the sentence trail off, unintentionally.

He couldn't help it. The silver reploid laughed softly at this, but only for a moment. When he quieted again, he turned serious. Forte happened to glance back at his commander at that time, and the look he saw wasn't very comforting at all. Coupled with Jett's next question, the dark Hunter suddenly realized exactly why the other wanted to talk to him.

"You haven't been feeling anything... strange lately, have you?"

"I'm not infected, sir," Forte responded respectfully. "I assure you."

Jett seemed to consider the opposite, holding his soldier in a calculating gaze. He opened his mouth finally to speak, but the instant he did, the alarms sounded again. Instead of ordering Forte to be scanned, he swore.

"We'll continue this conversation later." Without a word, the commander stood and ran toward the door, leaving no room for objections.

Grimacing, Forte followed the silver reploid out to the teleportation center. He didn't like the sound of that at all, but all he could do was grit his teeth and bear it. The coming battle would provide him with an opportunity to vent his frustrations, and he needed to clear his head before he spoke with Jett again anyway. Arguing now at a time like this would get him less than nowhere.

--------------------

It wasn't too bad at all. Even the battles at the beginning of everything were looking harder than this. Yet X's eyes were wide and nervous, watching his friend finish off the last of the Mavericks. He had seen Forte in action before, but something about him now seemed wrong, out of character. He was moving as smoothly as he ever had, but he seemed to be having a little _too_ much fun destroying the drones. One shot through the chest or in the face, that was his normal method of disposal, but here Forte was tearing off arms and legs, kicking and punching when the enemy was defenseless and causing all sorts of unnecessary torment to simple drones who didn't even have the mental capacity to understand why they had been sent out to attack this part of the city.

X turned at a soft sound behind him; there was his commander, stepping closer to observe the scene as well. Something about the look on his face said he wasn't interested in that the battle was at an end. Uncertainty, suspicion... More than that, distrust. X blinked his confusion. Forte _was_ acting strangely, but he had known Jett for eight months - more than enough time to know that by his expression, the silver Hunter thought something was more than terribly wrong. Glancing back and forth between the two, it suddenly hit him. He'd heard the announcement earlier that day about the virus's symptoms and now it was dawning on him. The reason Forte had been so angry earlier, his unusual violence toward his enemies... It was suddenly so clear.

Forte had been infected with the Maverick virus.

As he finished off the last Maverick, the dark Hunter sighed, his breathing a little heavier than normal. He felt much better than he had earlier, more calm and relaxed now that he had thrown extra effort into the fight. In retrospect, he considered, he probably could have gotten the same effect even if he hadn't been so unusually ruthless. If they had been more than robots, he might have felt a little bad about it, but they weren't and now, facing Jett again didn't seem so bad. His eyes slid closed for a moment as he calmed himself and he turned to look for the others. He remembered he had heard their cannon fire some distance behind him. Fortunately, he found he didn't need to look far - they had already found him.

Or perhaps, as he discovered, unfortunately might've been a more fitting word. Forte blinked, baffled at their expressions. X quickly teleported away, but not before Forte caught the worried look in his eyes. Jett, on the other hand, stayed behind, his own gaze cold and thoughtful, like that of a father with his child behind him, eyeing a deadly viper and determining how to kill it.

"Teleport back to base, Forte."

From his tone alone, the darker reploid realized what had happened. He stood silently, his eyes slightly wider than normal. "Sir, I know what you think, but I-"

"Don't argue with me. _Do it_."

Forte bit his tongue to keep himself from saying anything else, but did as he was told. For all the good that battle did him, it may as well not have happened at all for the way he felt at that moment, but he controlled himself. Both his commander and his friend now had it in their heads that he was infected with the Maverick virus and it was up to him to prove that he wasn't. Still, he couldn't help his irritation.

_Why does no one in this damn base trust me?!_

**A/N**: Grr... This chappy sooo bit my bum. I mean it had my arse grilled with two sides and a soda to go. I know where I'm goin with it; I've known where I'll take this for 3 bloody years now. If only I hadn't made so many changes to the story along the way... But hey! It's long! That's a plus. And I said I would make it long, didn't I?

Okie, one little thing here. There's a flashback line in this chapter somewhere, and some parts are choppy... Apologies to anyone who was annoyed with that because I'm quickly running out of ideas on how to write this thing and I needed something to kick this thing into what I have going for it. I realized recently that my fic is starting to go off into outerspace instead of following the storyline like it needs to, so I'm trying to shove it back on course. Unfortunately, that's not easy, as I'm now finding out. Hopefully, next chappy will be more focussed than this one was and I won't have such a pain in the arse trying to write it.


	8. Chapter 7

**A/N**: I think I'm getting the hang of this crap again. I couldn't seem to make things sound very good to me until I started trying to write what was going on, like I didn't care how it sounded. That might just be working, so I'm gonna try it on for a while. Better bloody work or I'm gonna cry. This bitch's hard enough to write without blocks popping up every five minutes.

To the people who reviewed...

Kyogre: Ooo... You just keep reading. You might like.

arken elf: Actually, I haven't decided whether or not his rages were caused by hidden memories. Maybe it'll turn out to be a part of his personality. OO

**Sunrise  
**Chapter 7: Betrayal

He'd been right to assume arguing would get him nowhere, and that was an understatement if he'd ever made one. By the time he got back to base, Forte was practically dragged off to the med lab. He allowed it, of course, but it still burned him. Jett no longer trusted him and that touched nerves, though he could understand why the commander would change his mind. The stink of it was that it was on basis of an assumption. That was what got to him. What was worse, Jett predictably followed protocols to the letter - he went straight to Ketsu about the matter. As if the medic needed another reason to dislike him.

Hesitantly, Forte admitted to himself he had been acting more aggressive than normal, but no matter how he looked at it, he still couldn't see where anyone would think the virus had anything to do with it. The memo specifically stated that Dokanru had been acting "insane" and "excessively violent" before his death. Where in the world had he ever displayed anything like that?

With a heavy sigh, Forte slouched down deeper in his seat, glaring daggers at the table top. Out of bordeom, he looked around and decided, hopefully, that the lot of them couldn't have hated him as much as he first thought. Why would they have told him to wait in sick bay where he could have easily destroyed valuable equipment and such instead of putting him in quarantine to wait for the scan results? Then again, he was almost willing to bet X had something to do with that part. It seemed the blue reploid was the only one who wanted to see the other side of the coin in this issue. Zero might have, perhaps, but Forte hadn't seen him since the funeral service.

Come to think of it, he wondered, Zero hadn't looked too terribly upset over it all, more or less hardened by the experience.

Something in the background caught his attention, and he was surprised he hadn't noticed it before. A familiar voice, from a room nearby. Desperate for a distraction, he decided to eavesdrop and moved quietly into another chair closer to the open door.

The voice was muffled, barely audible, but from its tone, Forte recognized it as Delta instantly. It sounded like he was out in the hallway or perhaps in the room across the way. The black and orange Hunter scoffed. He was probably speaking with Ketsu, deciding how to apologize to him or something now that they knew for certain he wasn't infected with the blasted virus.

But the other voice was not Ketsu's, Forte discovered with some interest. No, this person had a deeper sound to him and a smoothness that was almost sinister. All the more curious, Forte leaned a little closer to the opening, even venturing to peek outside. The small yellow reploid was nowhere to be seen, but his words came clearly enough that Forte could make out most of what he said.

"... subject didn't survive the infection," said Delta. Something was different about him though. He was too calm. He didn't sound... normal.

"I suspected as much," the other voice said severely, but it wasn't like a statement at all. It sounded like a command, and Forte furrowed his brows at it. He'd never heard that voice before, but he immediately didn't like whoever it was. Even Zero on his bad days didn't sound _that_ arrogant. "Have you infected the other yet?"

Forte's eyes widened. "Not yet, sir, but I have corrupted his scans. Once they put him in quarantine, it'll be all too easy to take care of him. The rest will follow shortly after."

"Good. When you've finished your task, return to the LC 548 region. You'll find the base easily enough from that point."

"Your will be done, Lord Sigma."

The transmission obviously ended after that point. For a moment it seemed that Delta was going to go down to the other end of the hall, but the footsteps paused... and then began to grow louder. Forte didn't wait. Before Delta could enter the room, he was already halfway down a second hall through the other door. Much to his horror, the footsteps followed him, bolting down the hall behind him.

Forte didn't bother to look back. Instead, he broke into full speed, completely unaware of the reploid walking toward him around the next corner. He slammed full force into Ketsu before either of them could even react, both Hunters falling to the floor with mixed cries of surprise.

Something, perhaps Ketsu's knee, had been shoved into Forte's stomach during the accident, effectively knocking the wind out of him. So when hands grabbed him, roughly lifted him up and slammed him back against the wall, he could only flail helplessly. When he next opened his eyes, he found himself staring down the business end of Delta's cannon, the medic behind him slowly climbing to his feet, a look of pure shock on his face.

"Stay back, sir!" Delta ordered, edging a step closer to the doctor. "Forte's been infected! He might attack us!"

Ketsu sighed and rubbed the arm he had fallen on, regarding the black Hunter with a pitying gaze. Forte would have protested the accusation had he been able to catch his breath, but as it was, he could only shake his head vigorously, as if to say "No! It's a lie!" He was sure he had been the only one to overhear Delta's conversation with the other Maverick, but with the way things were going, Ketsu was almost certainly going to believe the yellow Hunter's word over his.

"I know," Ketsu sighed, shaking his head slowly. "We have to quarantine him until we can find an anti-virus."

Finally, Forte caught his breath, but before he could say anything, he found himself being dragged down the hall, most likely toward an isolation chamber. He coughed over his words violently at first, but even when he could finally speak clearly enough, Ketsu only hushed him, telling him it would be alright soon. More frustrated than ever, Forte struggled to be released so that he could try to convince the other Hunter, but the medic was surprisingly stronger than he looked. Ketsu had his arms quickly pinned behind his back and held him there until he stopped fighting, and by that time, Forte had become too angry to argue anymore.

"Fine!" he all but shouted, ignoring the stares of the one or two reploids who happened to pass by. "Let the Mavericks kill you! If you'd believe them over me, I'd rather die anyway!"

The quarantine room was just around the corner, but as he chanced a glance in that direction, Forte noticed something. Perhaps he had a way to get out of this situation yet. Keeping his head lowered, he made a quick scan of the area, silently allowing himself to be led to the waiting door. Ketsu released his arm for just a moment to punch in the key code, and that was when Forte took his opportunity.

Without a word, Forte balled his fist and heaved it savagely into the smaller reploid, sending Delta crashing against the wall in an awkward fashion. Ketsu spun around, hearing the other Hunter's cry, but before either Hunter knew what was going on, Forte was already racing down the hallway to the window at the end. Taking a flying leap, the dark reploid stretched his body out as narrowly as he could and lowered his head just as he crashed through the glass and began a sickening five story fall. Ketsu and Delta reached the window a split second later, but they were already too late. The last they saw of the black and orange reploid was a beam of purple light jetting toward the heavens.

--------------------

X shook his head in disbelief, then glanced with worried eyes over at Zero for assurance, but the crimson Hunter didn't seem to notice. His own gaze held Ryot's steadily, and at the moment it was hard to tell if the blonde was angry or contemplating something, so severe was his expression. The smaller Hunter thought to say something, but held his tongue. He realized, after a second's thought, that he truly had nothing to speak of.

Forte, one of their better Hunters, had gone Maverick and went awol, and that was as much as anyone could confirm. What they weren't certain of was his whereabouts, the most frustrating thing of all. Every reploid on base had a transmitter built somewhere into their body by default. Forte's new body had one as well, but his blip had yet to be found. Scans of the city had come up nill, and scans from the outer regious had turned up the same. It was just as well that Forte had fallen off the face of the planet for all anyone could tell, and it was buggering Ketsu to no end.

"It must be interference from the virus in his system," the medic sighed, typing commands furiously. "That's the only explanation I can think of, but we won't be able to get him back without that signal. He could be on the other side of the globe right now, for all I know."

Growing impatient, X groaned and paced in a small circle for a moment before staring back at the screen again. Behind him, he could hear Zero and Ryot talking about something, so he listened in on their conversation.

"Got it!" X jerked back around to face Delta, as did the rest of the room. The tech sat at a second monitor on which a map was displayed. He briefly gestured to a section that pulsed a pale green color. "He's in this area somewhere, LC sector." The yellow Hunter stared at a window near the bottom of the screen, furrowing his brows in confusion. "He just sent a message, something about the 548 region... and he's warning everyone to stay away from me." Delta cast a hurt glance back at the others, Ketsu in particular. The medic nodded grimly.

"He still thinks you're Maverick," he finished, then shook his head. "The virus must be tearing him up. I don't know how much longer he has at this rate."

"We need to bring him back as soon as we can," said Zero, finally entering the conversation. He nodded to Ryot, who returned the gesture in understanding. The crimson Hunter began to leave the room, but paused in the doorway and turned back as X called to him. He turned back to see the smaller Hunter walking up beside him, a determination in his emerald eyes.

"I'm going with you," the azure Hunter insisted. When the red reploid remained silent, X persisted. "I'm his friend too, Zero. Please, don't tell me not to go. You know I can't stay here."

Zero sighed and tilted his head slightly. For just a moment, his eyes softened. To any other reploid, it might have looked as though the blonde was going to protest. Instead, he nodded and continued on his way, X close behind.


End file.
